29 Nov 2024

African Think Tank

Association For Strategic Culture and Research Foundation

African Think Tank

Africa is of natural interest to the leading political forces operating on the world stage. It has a huge territory, more than a billion people and natural resources, which, according to various estimates, make up 30-40% of all mineral reserves of the planet. At the same time, the level of development of the continent itself, at least in the last five hundred years, is significantly lower than the level of development of the surrounding European and Asian countries.

By V.M. Sergeev, VIPerson

27 May, 2021

Will U.S. Sanctions Against Ethiopia Provide Russia with Regional Opening?

The U.S. has recently imposed sanctions against some Ethiopian officials who Washington blames for alleged human rights abuses in the country’s restive Tigray Province. The background context is that members of the previously most important party of the former Ethiopian ruling coalition, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), recently split with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s new Prosperity Party ruling coalition over serious domestic political differences related to his vision for the country.

By Andrew Korybko

6 June, 2021

Is There Any Hope Left For The Horn Of Africa?

The high hopes that many had for a radical improvement of the situation in the Horn of Africa just a few short years ago have been shattered by a combination of internal and international conflicts centered on Ethiopia, but it might be premature to predict that the region won't ever recover since Prime Minister Abiy could drastically turn everything around once more should he have the political will to do so.

By Andrew Korybko

6 June, 2021

The LAPSSET Corridor Is China's Latest Silk Road In East Africa

IGAD's Chinese-backed infrastructure projects will eventually create a regional version of Beijing's vision for a Community of Common Destiny, one of the central philosophical tenets behind BRI.

By Andrew Korybko

8 June, 2021

Russia Should Consider Partnering With The UAE In The Horn Of Africa

The Horn of Africa is arguably the most geostrategic part of the continent for the rest of the world at large so it's only fitting that Russia crafts a comprehensive strategy for advancing its interests there, one which would become much more viable if it seriously considered partnering with the region's de facto Emirati hegemon

By Andrew Korybko

8 June, 2021

Rwanda’s Military Is The French Proxy On African Soil

Why did Rwanda intervene in Mozambique in July 2021 to defend, essentially, two major energy companies? The answer lies in a very peculiar set of events that took place in the months before the troops left Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda.

By Vijay Prashad

21 September, 2021

Israel’s Accreditation To African Union Is Dividing Africa

Israel has long sought to retake its position as an observer state at the African Union (AU). It had this status with the Organisation of African Unity until that continental body became the AU in 2002. AU Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat has now opened the door to Israel again – and not everyone is welcoming his decision.

By Shewit Woldemichael

24 September, 2021

The Dilapidated Misery of Sahel

The world’s most unstable regions are undoubtedly knitted in the Middle-East and the Sub-Saharan Africa. On one end a handful of the middle eastern countries account to the most chaotic warfare since World War II.

By Syed Zain Abbas Rizvi

14 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

Sudan Coup Prompted by Failures in Washington’s Foreign Policy

For decades now the political affairs of the Republic of Sudan have been a preoccupation of the U.S. State Department, Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Prior to the partition of the country in 2011, Sudan was the largest geographic nation-state in Africa. The country of 50 million was becoming an emerging oil-producing state maintaining ties with both the West and the developing countries.

By Abayomi Azikiwe

1 November, 2021

Geopolitical Analysis of the “Power Shift” and Russia's Special Interest in Sudan

Sudan, located in the northeast Africa, has deepening economic crisis, so many social and political forces. While some are advocating for developing democracy, others have, under the circumstances, aligned with the military, which has accused the civilian governing parties of mismanagement and monopolizing power.

By Kester Kenn Klomegah

3 November, 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

What Next For Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Negotiations?

The previous stances of the UNSC concerning Arabs in general have usually been neutral and non-binding, but it seems incapable of confronting the language of power, arrogance and unilateral thinking. Therefore, it was expected that the council’s decision on the GERD crisis would call for the continuation of negotiations on the basis that none of the three conflicting parties would be harmed or that the situation would not create a general crisis in a region that the world sees as inflamed.

By Dr. Abdel Latif El-Menawy

9 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

The African Union Should Resolve Somaliland’s Status

Joshua Meservey, senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, advocated in a recent policy paper that the United States recognize Somaliland as an independent state

By Stephen M. Schwartz

14 November, 2021

Sudan’s Future: The Israel Connection

On October 25 Sudan’s military, under the leadership of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, seized power and placed the country under martial law. Less than a month later there are strong signs that Burhan may have bitten off more than he can chew and is starting to regret masterminding the coup.

By Neville Teller

22 November, 2021

The Geopolitics Of The Sudan Coup

These new tactics and strategies could leverage efforts toward dismantling the precarious power structure comprising military rule. This factor likely explains the crackdown on Saturday, as security forces sought to prevent demonstrators from mobilizing and disseminating demands across various platforms.

By Alaina Kasimatis

24 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

Burning Ambition: Egypt’s Return To Regional Leadership And How Europe Should Respond

Egyptian foreign ministry officials interviewed for this paper describe the last decade of Egypt’s regional positioning as “defensive” in nature as the country contended with domestic issues.

By Hafsa Halawa

11 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

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

Information operations: An understudied facet of Russian influence in Africa

Russia’s Evolving Information Operations

By Miriam Roday, Sarah Daly

20 January, 2022

Imperialism Coordinates Effort to Prevent a People’s Revolution in Sudan

The military forces which have ruled Sudan since April 2019 have demonstrated their willingness to follow the imperatives of U.S. foreign policy. Although it is not possible to foresee the political character of a future civilian government, Washington is concerned over the risk having to deal with an administration unbeholden to imperialist interests in the region and internationally.

By Abayomi Azikiwe

20 January, 2022

What Does 2022 Have In Store For Africa?

Compared to other recent periods, the continent has relatively fewer conflict situations at the dawn of 2022 and a few conflicts that are quite deadly. Several states—Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Libya, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria and Somalia—are experiencing a range of violent conflicts that are leaving much civilian suffering in their wake. Many have tended to privilege military approaches to ending them. A change in strategy in Ethiopia and states in the Sahel could move them closer to peace.

By Dr Issaka Souaré

12 February, 2022

African Union Summit Addresses Continental and Global Issues

Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the AU Summit was the challenge by South Africa and Algeria to the unilateral decision made during 2021 by Commission Chair Mahamat to grant Israel observer status within the continental organization. Historically the progressive and anti-imperialist forces in Africa have demonstrated unconditional solidarity with Palestine along with other national liberation movements fighting colonialism.

By Abayomi Azikiwe

12 February, 2022

Xi reaffirms 'comprehensive strategic partnership' in meeting with Sisi

The Chinese president also stressed the “comprehensive strategic partnership” between Beijing and Cairo that has become “a model of solidarity between China and Arab, African and developing countries.”

By Hagar Hosny

14 February, 2022

Many Africans Reject Washington’s Position on Ukraine Crisis

Since the post-World War II period national liberation movements and independent countries in Africa have developed solid diplomatic and economic relations with the former Soviet Union and today’s Russian Federation.

By Abayomi Azikiwe

14 March, 2022

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