29 Nov 2024
African Think Tank

Association For Strategic Culture and Research Foundation

African Think Tank
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Mozambique Might Require Foreign Military Assistance To Clean Up Its Hybrid War Mess
Chronically impoverished and formerly civil war-torn Mozambique has the potential to become the world's fourth-largest natural gas exporter due to its vast offshore reserves in the extreme northeastern part of the country, but this Southern African state's ambitious plans are at risk of being derailed by the ever-intensifying Islamist-driven Hybrid War in that strategic corner of its territory, one which might ultimately require foreign military assistance to resolve after the national armed forces proved themselves incapable of containing this threat.
By Andrew Korybko
30 November, 2020
Libya’s Proxy War And The Changing Geopolitical Balance Of North Africa
On 20 July 2020, the Egyptian parliament unilaterally voted in favour of the possible use of the country’s armed forces abroad. It is clear that these armed forces will be used in one place only – Libya.
By Leonid Savin
25 January, 2021
Russia-Africa Summit: The Roadmap to Africa, Shift in Geopolitical Relations
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent warm greetings to African leaders, business people and participants early October, signaling that everything is set for the first Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi, southern coastal city of Russia.
By Kester Kenn Klomegah
26 February, 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
Global Trends 2040
Every four years, US intelligence community analysts try to predict what is going to happen in the next 20 years. Although events regularly take place that show how difficult it is to make predictions for even the next five years (I’m talking about predictions, not plans), the US intelligence community continues putting together these reports using a set template.
By Leonid Savin
3 May, 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
Struggle for influence in Africa
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
The Strategic Consequences Of A Possible French Military Intervention In Mozambique
A publicly available expert-level newsletter on Mozambique news reports and clippings from the middle of May predicts that France might launch a limited military intervention in northern Mozambique's Cabo Delgado Province in order to protect the offshore energy deposits of its national champion Total, which necessitates an analysis of such a move's strategic consequences if it does indeed come to pass.
By Andrew Korybko
8 June, 2021
SADC: Dr. Lawrence Stergomena Tax Says Goodbye, and Calls for Scaling Up Sustainable Development in Southern Africa.
Exclusive Interview by Kester Kenn Klomegah
By Kester Kenn Klomegah
2 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
Is Amnesty To Boko Haram Unfair To Nigerian Society?
It was recently reported that President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has granted amnesty to thousands of repentant Boko Haram members. This development has generated mixed reactions across Nigeria and the world, with many questioning the justification for this action.
By Olusegun Akinfenwa
19 September, 2021
Power without Soft Power: China’s Outreach to Central Asia
While the international community focuses on the Uyghur Muslim and the Wakhan Corridor, the main threat to the Central Asian states will continue to be the lack of water supplies, which will lead to conflicts between countries in the region and, perhaps, with neighbors such as China and Russia.
By Michael Lambert
21 September, 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
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
France's Worries About Wagner's Alleged Deployment To Mali Make No Sense
In the event that those reports turn out to be true and such a deal is ultimately reached, then it should be internationally praised instead of condemned.
By Andrew Korybko
26 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
What Does An EU Indo-Pacific Strategy Entail?
The EU strategy currently appears to be pointed more towards building on established partnerships and developing new ones with like-minded countries in the Indo-Pacific to ensure its role and growing presence in the Indo-Pacific region.
By Premesha Saha
4 October, 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
European Union Pivot to Asia
Effective solutions to global challenges can only be developed and implemented in dialogue with Asian states.
By Israel Rafalovich
16 October, 2021
Interpreting the Biden Doctrine: The View From Moscow
It is the success or failure of remaking America, not Afghanistan, that will determine not just the legacy of the Biden administration, but the future of the United States itself.
By Dmitri Trenin
25 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
The Post-Pandemic World and US-China Rivalry
The post-pandemic world will not be determined by the outcome of the confrontation between the US and China, or by splitting the world into two competing camps, writes Nelson Wong, Vice Chairman of the Shanghai Centre for RimPac Strategic and International Studies, speaker at the Special Session of the 18th Annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club.
By Wong Nelson
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
France and Africa: Towards a New Model of Relations?
In recent decades, French foreign policy in Africa has been preoccupied with a jump-start of relations with the African nations, marked by a gradual curtailment of the Françafrique, a concept that provided for a direct military and political intervention in affairs of the French-speaking nations on the continent. France is now in search for a more balanced framework for interaction with the countries in the region.
By Alexei Chikhachev
9 November, 2021
Will Another Gaddafi Lead Libya?
Since Muammar Gaddafi died, Libya has been a country in war and filled with terrorists, who disguise themselves sometimes in suits and ties and pretend to be leaders. Violent intervention in Libya was not chiefly about the security of the people: it was about the security of global banking, money, and oil.
By Steven Sahiounie
17 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
China: The Upcoming Global Superpower
China holds 17.7% of the world’s total wealth, the second largest share held by any country. It has the world’s largest banking sector, with assets of $40 trillion and the world’s top 4 largest banks all being in China. In 2019, China overtook the US as the home to the highest number of rich people in the world, according to the global wealth report by Credit Suisse. It has the highest number of rich people in the world’s top 10% of wealth since 2019. There were 658 Chinese billionaires and 3.5 million millionaires.
By Kester Kenn Klomegah
28 November, 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
Central Asian Elites Choose China Over Russia
The rationale to explain these Central Asian elites’ choices is that they may be better off embracing China while subtly distancing themselves from Russia, as Beijing increasingly aligns with its Central Asian counterparts with greater success than Moscow. Despite Central Asian countries being independent for three decades, it is common to find Russian assertions that they still effectively own the region.
By Jon Yuan Jiang
6 December, 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
Ten Contradictions that Plague Biden’s Democracy Summit
President Biden’s virtual Summit for Democracy on December 9-10 is part of a campaign to restore the United States’ standing in the world, which took such a beating under President Trump’s erratic foreign policies. Biden hopes to secure his place at the head of the “Free World” table by coming out as a champion for human rights and democratic practices worldwide.
By Medea Benjamin, Nicolas J. S. Davies
14 December, 2021
Collective Sanctions Isolating Mali in the Sahel Sahara as Russia Rides the Wave of Anticolonialism
Over the past few years, Russian authorities have in their speeches expressed anti-colonial sentiments and openly declared unflinching support for fighting against what they referred to as neocolonial tendencies in Africa. Russia is particularly against France in French-speaking African countries in West Africa including the entire Sahel and Central African Republic.
By Kester Kenn Klomegah
27 December, 2021
Pentagon Drone Attacks Killed Many Innocent People with Impunity
Some of the most well-known people who exposed these criminal acts are Julian Assange of WikiLeaks, Edward Snowden, a private contractor with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Chelsea Manning, a former soldier accused of sharing military secrets with WikiLeaks. Snowden was driven into exile in Russia, Manning was court martialed under the Espionage Act and served seven years in U.S. military prisons, while Assange is facing extradition to the U.S. to stand trial.
By Abayomi Azikiwe
6 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
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
Russian Policy Failing Africa’s Sustainable Development
After the State Duma meeting, Kester Kenn Klomegah fixed this interview with Ambassador Nicholas Sango who willingly shared his views and thoughts on a few current pertinent issues connecting Russia and Africa. Below are the interview excerpts
By Kester Kenn Klomegah
30 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 Enslavement and the Rise of Capitalism in North America and Beyond
A series of rebellions by the enslaved and the Civil War in the U.S. led to the demise of the system of involuntary servitude. However, the dominance of world capitalism has intensified the economic exploitation of a global proletariat.
By Abayomi Azikiwe
4 February, 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
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 does the Ukrainian crisis affect Libya?
International companies rushed to consult with the Libyan National Oil Corporation about increasing supplies to Europe, but experts made clear their concerns about the political situation that the National Oil Corporation may not have export possibilities with the decline in good maintenance and oil smuggling.
By Miral Sabry Al Ashry
27 February, 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
Western Sanctions Against Russia Creates Food Deficits Globally
On an international geostrategic level, the Soviet Union and the U.S. found themselves on the opposite sides of the political spectrum. In Africa, Asia and Latin America, the Soviet Union supported the national liberation movements and those independent governments seeking to build an anti-imperialist and socialist orientation.
By Abayomi Azikiwe
13 April, 2022
Execution in Grand Rapids Illustrates Failure to End Police Terrorism
Over two weeks after Patrick Lyoya, 26, was stopped, chased, tackled and shot in the back of the head by a Grand Rapids patrolman, killing him instantly, there still has not been any punitive action taken against the white officer responsible for the death of the Congolese immigrant.
By Abayomi Azikiwe
24 April, 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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