23 Oct 2024

African Think Tank

Association For Strategic Culture and Research Foundation

African Think Tank

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

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

US Values Vs Chinese Values: Empire Vs Bandung As Seen From Cape Verde

The humiliation of Africa and China at the hands of Europe and the US cannot be brushed aside. When considering China’s current investment in Africa and Africa’s openness to this investment – it is imperative to include the long African and Chinese struggles against western imperialism.

By Aidan O’Brien

14 September, 2021

Foreign Competition In Guinea: The Scramble For Natural Resources

Guinea has struggled with political instability and endemic corruption since its independence from France in 1958. Despite the country’s poor infrastructure, there is a significant foreign presence in Guinea. Countries are mostly competing for its mineral resources, such as gold, diamonds, bauxite, and iron ore. The United States, along with other foreign powers, vies for access to these resources and for the ability to influence the country’s government.

By Jessica Pickering

22 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 China Cold War Will Unstick America’s Glue

Can an America that off-shored much of its manufacturing capacity to China, for short-term profit, afford the de-coupling?

By Alastair Crooke

2 October, 2021

Analyzing the American Hybrid War on Ethiopia

Ethiopia has come under unprecedented pressure from the U.S. ever since it commenced a military operation in its northern Tigray Region last November.

By Andrew Korybko

19 October, 2021

Morocco And Algeria On The Edge Of The Precipice

Algeria’s hostility toward Morocco since its independence in 1962 is considered a real enigma by many foreign observers. In reality, it is explained by the nature of power in Algeria, which, lacking democratic or at least historical legitimacy, sees this hostility as necessary for its internal hegemony and continuation.

By Dr. Mohamed Chtatou

29 October, 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

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

Voting for Polarization and Disunity in Libya

Libyan stability matters. Over the past decade, a stream of mercenaries, terrorists and weaponry flooding out of Libya’s southern borders have fueled a plethora of conflicts throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees have taken advantage of the chaos in a bid to cross the Mediterranean and enter Europe. Libya has, furthermore, mutated into a proxy conflict for a spectrum of international players.

By Baria Alamuddin

28 November, 2021

Ethiopia Conflict By US Design

American administrations, have consistently backed the TPLF, who established close connections with the US government during their 27 years in power (1991-2018), contacts that they are making full use of now.

By Graham Peebles

30 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

Ethiopian Offensive Prompts Retreat by Western-backed Rebels

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia has returned from the frontline in the battle to halt the advances of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

By Abayomi Azikiwe

23 December, 2021

Why Libya's election has collapsed at that time?

The map of the Arab region is shifting and rearranging interests, and another withdrawal of US forces from Iraq may also come before the end of this year, which means that the Arab reality, in general, has become more conducive to dealing with the logic of common interests and a common destiny.

By Miral Sabry Al Ashry

25 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

Africa in Review 2021 (Part III) : Unification is Essential to Progress and Development

Of course, Dr. Nkrumah during the years between 1945-1972, wrote extensively on the necessity of African unification. The union of African governments and people would encompass the national economies, the trade unions, youth, women, military institutions and the establishment of a continental market based in socialist planning.

By Abayomi Azikiwe

1 January, 2022

Chaos continues in Libya

The main focus should be on elections and the democratic transition to bring the country back, not on the fate of the national unity government. However, there must also be an 'equal opportunity and no candidate should have an unfair advantage and there must be an electoral platform while in an official role.

By Miral Sabry Al Ashry

2 January, 2022

Burkina Faso Military Coup Reflects Wave of Insecurity in West Africa

The U.S. nor France has the willingness to provide genuine assistance to the African people in their contemporary struggles for economic development and territorial sovereignty. The mass sentiment against Paris and Washington is well-founded. What is needed is revolutionary organization which can bring together the people of the region in a program aimed at continental unity and socialist reconstruction.

By Abayomi Azikiwe

1 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

Unite to Save South Africa

I have always located the problems we face within an economic model which promotes inequality and the desperation of the many, who suffer at the hands of the minority who are rich. As levels of desperation rise and the vulnerability of the marginalised increases, the potential for anti-constitutional, populist demagoguery will grow in South Africa.

By Thabo Makgoba

17 February, 2022

Can Africa Unite?

The AU and the EU, both together and individually, must focus their efforts on the appropriate vehicles for attaining this goal. For its part, the AU will need to establish stronger institutions capable of nurturing economic growth and ensuring that its gains are widely shared. As recent coups in West Africa show, many African countries have a long way to go to establish good governance and thereby provide for their populations.

By Malado Kaba

19 February, 2022

Spain Abandons Former Colony in the Western Sahara Endorsing Morocco Domination

Algeria, which has been a longtime advocate for liberation movements on the continent, has continued to demand that the UN abide by its legal obligations with respect to the SADR. Algiers routinely challenges on a diplomatic level those entities which support the continued colonization of the Western Sahara.

By Abayomi Azikiwe

27 March, 2022

After 60 Years of Independence Algeria Remains a Center of International Affairs

France along with other European imperialist states such as Spain, Portugal, Britain, Italy, Germany, Belgium and the United States had met in Berlin in 1884-1885 where they carved up the African continent into spheres of interests based upon their overall strengths economically and militarily.

By Abayomi Azikiwe

13 April, 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

Libya crisis: oil production declines by 50%

The average price of regular gasoline has topped $4 a gallon in recent weeks in the US, which is nearly 50% more than last year. Natural gas prices have also risen significantly, which has led to an increase in the cost of electricity and home heating.

By Miral Sabry Al-Ashry

11 July, 2022

Support ASCARF

ASCARF is a tax-exempt Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) that supports Public Benefit Activities (PBA). ASCARF appreciates your donations to develop the mission into global online Research Center. All accumulated funds to be forwarded to our Public Benefit Activities and outstanding authors. Thank you in advance!

Views expressed are of individual contributors, rather than the ASCARF's, unless explicitly stated otherwise. Some publications may contain information not suitable for users under 16 years of age.