29 Nov 2024
African Think Tank

Association For Strategic Culture and Research Foundation

African Think Tank
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China and Russia Launch a ‘Global Resistance Economy’
The U.S. will ignore the message from Anchorage. It is already testing China over Taiwan, and is preparing an escalation in Ukraine, to test Russia.
By Alastair Crooke
15 March, 2021
Why South Africa Should Embrace Pakistan’s “Look Africa” Policy
In March 2021, the Pakistan’s leaders unveiled country’s comprehensive security vision at the first Islamabad Security Dialogue – the first of its kind National Security Dialogue held in Islamabad. Aimed at broadening the concept of National Security, encouraging strategic communication, and presenting the South Asian emerging power as a centre of regional connectivity and global development
By Lungile Cabangani II
5 April, 2021
South Africa: The most ideal partner for Russia in Africa.
Central documents are Joint Declaration on the Establishment of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the Russian Federation and the Republic of South Africa, signed during the working visit of President Vladimir Putin to the RSA timed to BRICS Summit in Durban in March 2013 and the Treaty on Friendship and Partnership concluded within the official visit of President of Russia Vladimir Putin to the RSA in September 2016.
By Lungile Cabangani II
19 April, 2021
SADC: The Crisis of South Africa’s National Security Strategy Will Diminish What’s Left of BRIC“S” And Country’s Multipolar Dreams.
Without basic strategic planning document defining its National Interests and Strategic National Priorities, objectives, tasks, and measures in the sphere of national security, Republic of South Africa is unlikely to meet its stated goals in energy security, communications, finance, and state and public security.
By Lungile Cabangani II
21 May, 2021
Russia and China: Geopolitical Rivals and Competitors in Africa
Interview by Kester Kenn Klomegah
By Lipton Matthews
4 August, 2021
The Battle for Indian Ocean and Island States
Russia has taken an increasing interest in strengthening consistently its diplomacy with small island States especially Cape Verde, Mauritius, Maldives and Seychelles. Late December, the Kremlin appointed Deputy Director Artem Kozhin at the Foreign Ministry as the new ambassador to the island of Seychelles, signaling the strategic importance it attaches to this island state of Seychelles with an estimated population of 85 thousand, located in the Indian Ocean, northeast of Madagascar and east of Kenya.
By Kester Kenn Klomegah
14 August, 2021
Russia’s Association of Economic Cooperation with African States (AECAS) complements Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
Financing projects in Africa is one of the important keys and, at the same time, the most difficult issue for major Russian companies attempting to expand to Africa, and the financial instruments at their disposal are insufficient according to Anna Belyaeva, Executive Director of the Association of Economic Cooperation with African States.
By Kester Kenn Klomegah
18 August, 2021
African Leaders Must Prioritise Climate Risks – Verkooijen
In this insightful and wide-ranging interview, Professor Patrick Verkooijen, Chief Executive Officer of Global Center on Adaptation discusses the organization’s establishment, its main objectives, challenges and plans for the future.
By Kester Kenn Klomegah
19 August, 2021
SADC Leadership Changes: the Challenges and Future Perspectives
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) held the 41st Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government in Lilongwe, Malawi on 17 to 18 August 2021 with a limited number of participants. The modest symbolism associated with the gathering was to observe strictly the COVID-19 protocols
By Kester Kenn Klomegah
23 August, 2021
Debt Situation in Developing Countries
The coronavirus pandemic has worsened the debt situation in many developing countries
By Sergey Karataev
23 August, 2021
Samoa’s First Woman Prime Minister Finally Takes Office
Fiame has long been a trailblazer for women’s leadership. As a long-serving member of parliament and Samoa’s first woman deputy prime minister, she is used to breaking glass ceilings and has been a strong advocate for gender equality throughout her political career.
By Kerryn Baker
22 September, 2021
Chinese Investment In Africa Has Had ‘Significant And Persistently Positive’ Long-Term Effects Despite Controversy
Professor Crescenzi and Nicola Limodio, Assistant Professor of Finance at Bocconi University, Milan, conducted the research, using Ethiopia as a case study, by leveraging an innovative combination of data on firms, investments and local economic activity. They focussed on analysing medium and large manufacturing firms and Chinese FDI location choices.
By Riccardo Crescenzi, Nicola Limodia
11 October, 2021
BRICS’ Influence Grows as Three New Members Join the New Development Bank
The selection of the UAE, Uruguay and Bangladesh as the first three non-founding partners of the NDB indicates the intentions of BRICS – regional expansion with a focus on economic and transportation cooperation. This cooperation, as well as integration, is especially crucial as the world struggles to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic fallout.
By Paul Antonopoulos
13 October, 2021
China-Japan Relations: Searching For A New Equilibrium
The importance of stable China-Japan relations cannot be overstated. As the world’s second and third-largest economies, respectively, the impact of steady bilateral ties goes beyond the Asia-Pacific. The complex bilateral relations both have deep linkages and serious fault lines.
By Lucio Blanco Pitlo III
23 October, 2021
What Next After Sudan Changes Guards At The Crossroad?
Besides the search for peaceful political pathways, Sudanese authorities need to address the deep-seated economic deficiencies and tackle common problems (basic infrastructure) facing people in micro levels of the society. This also relates many African countries.
By Kester Kenn Klomegah
27 October, 2021
African Union Must Implement Strategies to Reverse Military Coups
Over the last 14 months, several African governments have been subjected to numerous attempts and actual military usurpations of political authority. In Niger, which is one of the world’s largest producers of uranium, it was reported that elements within the defense forces were thwarted in efforts to take control of the government on March 31 of 2021.
By Abayomi Azikiwe
4 November, 2021
Sudan And The UAE: Pulling Sudanese Strings
The UAE and the United States agreed at the time that it was time for Mr. Al-Bashir to go. But they likely disagreed about what should succeed him. The United States pushed for transition to a civilian-led democracy.
By James M. Dorsey
9 November, 2021
Why Russians Are Complaining How to Engage with Africa
In order to raise the economic influence, Russians have been making efforts to identify a structured finance mechanism for mega infrastructure projects such as nuclear power and energy, natural resources exploration and to significantly increase trade with Africa
By Kester Kenn Klomegah
11 November, 2021
Mozambique: Rule Of Law Prevails On Chang Extradition, But At A Price
Judge Margaret Victor overturned a decision by South Africa’s Justice Minister Ronald Lamola in August this year to send Chang to Mozambique to face similar charges in the US$2 billion ‘hidden debts’ scandal.
By Peter Fabricius
17 November, 2021
US Investors to Explore Opportunities in AfCFTA
United States investors are looking forward to exploring several opportunities in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), a policy signed by African countries to make the continent a single market.
By Kester Kenn Klomegah
17 November, 2021
COP26 Summit Fails to Take Decisive Action on Climate Change
Another annual international conference on the climate crisis ended on November 13 in Glasgow, Scotland where a contentious debate over the final document revealed fundamental differences on key issues.
By Abayomi Azikiwe
18 November, 2021
US-Africa Relations: An Opportunity Lost Or Found
As Africa’s economies and middle class continue to grow, there is a tremendous market for American consumer goods. Consumer and business spending in Africa is expected to top $6.6 trillion by 2030, up from $4 trillion in 2015. Again, not only China, but also nations in every other region of the world, are looking to fill the continent’s need for consumer goods.
By Ambassador Charles R. Stith
22 November, 2021
The United States and Africa: Building a 21st Century Partnership
We welcome the African Continental Free Trade Area, because we want to see Africa’s economic power in the world grow. More consumers should gain access to African goods and services. More jobs must be created for Africa’s young people – the global workforce of the future.
By Antony J. Blinken
25 November, 2021
Africa Taking Concrete Steps to Write Its Own Economic Success Story
The AfCFTA aspires to connect all the regions of Africa, to deepen economic integration and to boost intra-African trade and investment. It aspires to create a single market for goods and services across 55 countries and our continent, creating a market of as much as 1.3 billion people with a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion.
By H.E. Cyril Ramaphosa
25 November, 2021
The Global Pandemic Pushing Africa into A Severe Job Crisis
The economic principles have to be pursued and demanded with the same energy as the political ones. Fundamentally, it is the responsibility of the state, controlled by democratic institutions and an active civil society, to ensure that economic growth actually translates into employment creation.
By Johann Ivanov
28 November, 2021
China and Africa Move into New Era of Cooperation
Africa is experiencing a flowing tide of solidarity and self-strengthening, and the continent’s influence in international affairs continues to grow. It is now forging ahead with the development of free trade zones, accelerating industrialization and modernization, and heading towards the bright future envisioned in the AU’s Agenda 2063.
By Kester Kenn Klomegah
30 November, 2021
Why APEC Still Matters More Than Ever
The United States and China both have skin in the APEC game. The setting in which they must deal is multilateral, and their dealings are on full display to all other 19 members. APEC is not a negotiating forum that delivers formal inter-state agreements or has legal supra-national authority. It gives equal voice to, and requires consensus among, all its members, large, small and middling. It is no accident that the Biden-Xi summit follows hard on the heels of APEC.
By Peter Drysdale
2 December, 2021
Building China-Africa Community With Shared Future
This year marks the 65th anniversary of the start of diplomatic relations between China and African countries. Over the past 65 years, China and Africa have forged unbreakable fraternity in our struggle against imperialism and colonialism, and embarked on a distinct path of cooperation in our journey toward development and revitalization. Together, we have written a splendid chapter of mutual assistance amidst complex changes, and set a shining example for building a new type of international relations.
By H.E. Xi Jinping
2 December, 2021
Russia's Influence in the Central African Republic
Conflict over CAR's mineral resources could also intensify amid fears that the government may compensate Wagner or associated companies by handing them control of mining zones. Wagner arrived in 2018, around the same time that the government granted gold and diamond mining licences to the Russian-owned company Lobaye Invest SARLU.
By Pauline Bax
6 December, 2021
China And Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport: Reading Between The Lines
In the aftermath of this development, Ugandan authorities have been consistently insisting on three issues: The grace period is yet to expire and that the Ugandan government is confident of not defaulting on any obligations on repayment; that the terms of the loans are semi-concessional in nature and in line with Uganda’s infrastructure financing programme; and in the interest of transparency, the government has made the loan agreement available to the members of the Parliament.
By Abhishek Mishra
11 December, 2021
Europe Unveils U.S.$340bn Response to China's Belt and Road Initiative
The aim of the EU programme -- called Global Gateway -- is to help underpin the global recovery by mobilising investments in digital, clean energy and transport networks, as well as boosting health, education and research systems across the world. Low and middle-income countries were already facing a US$2.7 trillion infrastructure investment gap before the pandemic, according to World Bank estimates.
By Cable News Network
15 December, 2021
Financing Africa’s Post-Covid-19 Development
The financing needs to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) estimated at $2.5trillion for developing countries, was substantial even before the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has exacerbated the financing challenges. According to the 2021 OECD Global Outlook, the annual SDG financing gap in developing countries is estimated to have increased by $1.7 trillion, or roughly 70%, in 2020
By Ms. Vera Songwe
27 December, 2021
Sudanese Masses Pressure Military Regime to Relinquish Power
Western-backed regime faces the resignation of interim prime minister amid continuing demonstrations throughout the country
By Abayomi Azikiwe
30 December, 2021
Africa in Review 2021 (Part II) : Regional Conflict and the Role of Imperialism
During the coup in Conakry in May 2021, the presence of AFRICOM troops were strongly in evidence. These military leaders could not act with this degree of impunity absent of the full backing of transnational corporations, international finance capital and their security apparatuses. Stability and security will only be realized once the resources, land and labor of African people are retaken and used for the benefit of the majority.
By Abayomi Azikiwe
31 December, 2021
Nonsensical Propaganda Campaign To Make China Look Bad In Uganda
The article in the Daily Monitor, which was written by Yasiin Mugerwa, said that the Chinese authorities were going to take control of the airport because of the failure of Uganda to pay off the loan. A few days after the Daily Monitor article, U.S. media company Bloomberg also ran a similar article on November 28 without providing any further details on this news development, as did other U.S. and international outlets. The story by the Daily Monitor, meanwhile, went viral on Twitter, WhatsApp, and beyond.
By Vijay Prashad
5 January, 2022
US-China Sustainable Infrastructure Collaborative Opportunities: Green Partnerships Must Begin In Africa
The United States has an opportunity to work closely with African nations and China to implement new infrastructure projects sustainably. The US must take advantage of China’s rhetoric on adherence to new environmentally friendly practices. The ‘green’ way must become the only way to conduct infrastructure projects.
By Hannah Bases
13 January, 2022
Africa’s Path To Recovery In An Uncertain World
Beyond the health crisis, securing the recovery will be a complex task, requiring policymakers to make difficult trade-offs to meet people’s immediate and long-run needs, while avoiding excessive debt. Achieving this balance is never easy, but it is more challenging than ever in today’s uncertain environment. Each country’s course will be guided by its own circumstances, including economic growth, inflation pressures, budget space, and its ability to attract public and private financing.
By Kristalina Georgieva, Macky Sall
13 January, 2022
St. Petersburg – Venue for Second African Leaders Summit
In their first joint declaration, emerging from the Russia-Africa summit, at the initiative of African participants a new dialogue mechanism—the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum—was created. The declaration stipulated that all top-level meetings take place within its framework once every three years, alternately in Russia and in an African state. It says further that the foreign ministers of Russia and three African countries—the current, future and previous chairpersons of the African Union—will meet for annual consultations.
By Kester Kenn Klomegah
20 January, 2022
Libya Struggling Economic: Bringing the Oil Sector Back on Track
The Libyan oil sector also faces frequent obstacles and disturbances from employees, most of which are related to the closure of oil facilities as a result of
By Miral Sabry Al Ashry
24 January, 2022
The State and Future of Africa
The creation of $650 billion in new Special Drawing Rights last year was a step in the right direction but more needs to be done to enable African and other developing countries to access the SDRs that are not needed or being used by developed or emerging economies. It is also clear that public debt vulnerabilities will dominate macro-economic policy management in Africa over the next few years.
By His Excellency, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo
27 January, 2022
European Union targeting Comprehensive Partnership with Africa
Long before this summit, European Union members and business investors have been making consistent efforts at capitalizing on and exploring several emerging opportunities offered by the newly introduced African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which provides a unique and valuable access to an integrated African market of 1.3 billion people. In practical reality, it aims at creating a continental market for goods and services, with free movement of business people and investments in Africa.
By Kester Kenn Klomegah
13 February, 2022
A Conversation With Ghana’s Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia
In an exclusive interview with PAV, Dr Bawumia sheds light on progress with key segments of the agenda of President Akufo Addo under his purview, COVID 19, and other seminal developments across the continent.
By Ajong Mbapndah L
17 February, 2022
Russia and the Maghreb: Future Geostrategic Perspectives?
Today, the Maghreb is not a fundamental interest for Russia, but rather a source of economic and political opportunities. The Russian redeployment in the Maghreb, which began during Vladimir Putin's second term in 2004 and has been over the last decade, relies on new vectors, distinct from the old anti-imperialist aura from which the Soviet Union had benefited in Algeria and Libya.
By Kester Kenn Klomegah
23 February, 2022
How Russia Will Counterpunch the U.S./EU Declaration of War
One of the key underlying themes of the Russia/Ukraine/NATO matrix is that the Empire of Lies (copyright Putin) has been rattled to the core by the combined ability of Russian hypersonic missiles and a defensive shield capable of blocking incoming nuclear missiles from the West, thereby ending Mutually Assured Destruction (M.A.D.)
By Pepe Escobar
6 March, 2022
Police Killings Continue While the Biden Administration Calls for More Funding to Law-Enforcement
Two examples of the inability of the administration to satisfactorily handle the rise in police violence against the oppressed, are the recent exonerations of law-enforcement officers in the killing of Ma’Khia Bryant (featured image) in Columbus, Ohio in April 2021 and Breonna Taylor during March 2020 in Louisville, Kentucky. Bryant, a 16-year-old in foster care, was gunned down by a police officer called to the scene of a fight between two teenagers.
By Abayomi Azikiwe
17 March, 2022
Once in a Century Opportunity
In short, the financial war on Russia gave the West an unmistakable lesson from Moscow that the hardest currencies are not USD or EUR, but rather oil, gas, wheat, and gold. Yes, energy, food and strategic resources are currencies.
By Alastair Crooke
5 April, 2022
United Nations Secretary General Holds Talks in Moscow and Kyiv on Ukraine War
Obviously, the U.S. and NATO actions indicate that the Biden administration and its European allies are not interested in a speedy conclusion to the war in Ukraine. The sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the EU has created a crisis in Western Europe where several leading states such as Germany are continuing, out of necessity, to purchase oil and natural gas from the Russian Federation.
By Abayomi Azikiwe
3 May, 2022
Congress Passes Anti-Russia Bill Reinforcing Neo-colonialism in Africa
Russian military operations in Ukraine are in response to Washington and Wall Street’s efforts to expand the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) deeper into Eastern Europe as a direct threat to the interests of the Russian Federation and its allies.
By Abayomi Azikiwe
15 June, 2022
Top stories
Mozambique Might Require Foreign Military Assistance To Clean Up Its Hybrid War Mess
Russia-Africa Summit: The Roadmap to Africa, Shift in Geopolitical Relations
China and Russia Launch a ‘Global Resistance Economy’
Why South Africa Should Embrace Pakistan’s “Look Africa” Policy
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