He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Toronto in 2007 and was a research fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (2000), in addition to a visiting fellow at the Australian Defense Force Academy (2012) and China Foreign Affairs University (2016). Bjola's research interests lie at the intersection of diplomatic studies, negotiation theory, international ethics, and crisis management. His current research focuses on the structural and normative conditions by which digital technologies inform, regulate, and constrain foreign policy.