Competition In Africa Research Articles

Questioning the West and Creating an Alternative: China’s and Türkiye’s Similar Approaches toward Africa

Several actors have turned their attention to Africa, and the continent is becoming a focal point for international relations. These actors have adopted various approaches to improve their relations with African countries. This study examines the alternative dimension of rising international competition on the continent. The main focus of the study is Türkiye’s and China’s alternative approaches to Africa. Accordingly, the study seeks to answer three interrelated questions: What are the differences between the traditional and alternative approaches? What are the main factors shaping China’s and Türkiye’s alternative approaches toward Africa? What are the similarities in Beijing’s and Ankara’s approaches regarding African countries in practice? As a result, this study argues that China and Türkiye present an alternative stance to the Western-centered approach for competition in Africa, despite some differences in their relations with continental countries.

Hidden contestation: valence issues, methodological blindness and the politics of development in Nigeria

ABSTRACT Political competition in Africa is often characterized as suffering from a number of deficiencies at the level of political discourse and electoral campaigns, which together paint a picture of an essentially vacuous political life. This article contends that these absences are to some degree methodologically generated. If African political actors appear to have little substance to say about the most pressing social and economic issue of the day, then perhaps as scholars of politics we are looking at what they say in the wrong way? This article points to the limitations of an increasingly popular method of discourse analysis in African politics based on coding political statements within a framework that contrasts valence politics with a position-based appeals framework. It argues for an alternative more contextualized, inductive method of analysing political discourse as the struggle to control the meaning of key terms, using the example highly contested gubernatorial election in Nigeria’s southwest. Debates over “stomach infrastructure” and a “hierarchy of needs” reveal the possibility that political discourse and electoral campaigning that on more mechanistic methodologies look devoid of substantive political contestation in fact contain competing conceptions of development and what the state should do.

Wagner Group—A Tool and Target of Great Power Competition in Africa: Implications for Canada

Wagner Group, the armed non-state actor linked to the Kremlin, is both a tool and target of great power competition in Africa. Moscow employs Wagner Group as a tool to consolidate and expand the Russian presence on the continent. Washington designated Wagner Group as a transnational criminal organization in January 2023 in response to the Russian entity's roles in Ukraine and Africa. This article explores the implications that Wagner Group, and the great power dynamics that envelop it, pose for Canadian policy, especially vis-à-vis Africa. It contends that Wagner Group's activities in Africa upset longstanding Canadian expectations about armed non-state actors and their role in extractive industries, and undermine, with Russian support, the UN and its peacekeeping in Africa. However, mounting a robust opposition to Wagner Group in Africa, as Washington hopes for, will require greater commitment, focus, and risk tolerance than Ottawa has shown in recent years.

Policy Impacts of the Department of Defense Office of Net Assessment on Sino-U.S. Soft Power Competition in Africa

The Strategic Consequences of Chinese Racism: A Strategic Asymmetry for the United States is a book-length academic research article written by Dr. Bradley Thayer and commissioned by Andrew Marshal, director of the Department of Defense Office of Net Assessment (ONA). Owing to both the significant policymaking power of the ONA, as well as the unique topic of the article, it is the belief of this author that Strategic Consequences is in need of examination by the international community. This paper is the first known academic investigation of Strategic Consequences and seeks to provide a critical lens of analysis. This paper examines the three most significant arguments made by Thayer and cross-examines them against existing datasets and literature to determine their relative degree of veracity. First, this paper examines Thayer’s argument that Chinese society is more racist than U.S. society, and finds that this argument is likely correct. Second, this paper examines Thayer’s argument that Chinese racism acts as a stabilizing force for the Chinese government, and finds that this argument is also likely correct. Finally, this paper examines Thayer’s argument that U.S. anti-racist culture acts as a useful tool of soft-power influence in Africa, and finds that this argument is likely incorrect.

Beyond Ukraine: Examining the Potential for Great Power Competition in Africa

Introduction: Great power competition in Africa is a multifaceted phenomenon with significant implications for regional stability, economic development, security, and governance. This study explores the drivers, strategies, and impacts of major global powers in Africa, aiming to deepen our understanding of the complexities of great power rivalry on the continent. Methodology: Employing a qualitative research approach, this study conducts a comprehensive review of existing literature, scholarly research, and expert insights to analyze great power competition in Africa. Data collection involves gathering and synthesizing information from diverse sources, followed by qualitative analysis techniques to interpret key findings and insights. Results/Findings: The study identifies several key findings, including the strategies employed by major global powers, the challenges posed by great power competition, and the role of regional organizations in managing external influence in Africa. Future Directions: Building on these findings, future research directions could explore the long-term implications of great power competition on sustainable development, governance, and regional cooperation in Africa.

A Fragile Agenda for Peace: Change and Continuity in the Biden Administration’s Africa Policy

As the Biden administration’s first term nears its conclusion, this essay takes stock of the emerging consequences of its approach to US foreign relations with Africa. It does so by assessing change and continuity in US relations with the African states that have been selected by the Biden administration for Global Fragility Act partnerships: Libya, Mozambique, and, as a region, the coastal West African states of Ghana, Guinea, Togo, Benin, and Côte d’Ivoire. Passed in late 2019, the Global Fragility Act was hailed as a policy innovation meant to bring better coordination and long-term planning to US attempts to prevent conflicts and engender stability in regions of concern for Washington. This essay argues that these aims will be undermined by the dearth of new proposals advanced by the Global Fragility Act as well as the Biden administration’s overarching commitment to counterterrorism and geostrategic competition in Africa.

What Drives the European Union's Contemporary Strategic Engagement with China?

Abstract: This article discusses the main determinants of the European Union's (EU) strategic engagement with China with reference to three theoretical viewpoints: an institutional perspective, a values-based approach and a realpolitik dimension. It examines the utility of each theoretical position and outlines complementary and divergent essential characteristics. This examination is conducted with the aid of empirical evidence from long-standing points of interaction between the EU and China over the last three decades. These include the EU's arms embargo of China, EU–China competition in Africa and the EU's position on designating market economy status to China. This analysis can reduce the misunderstandings and uncertainties embedded in the contemporary EU–China relationship.

Unpacking the competitive relations among Chinese business actors in Africa

ABSTRACT Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in Africa has attracted much discussion on the competitive relations between Chinese companies and their foreign or local counterparts. There is however limited research examining the increasingly competitive relationships among Chinese business actors themselves and the complex implications of their activities for African economic development. Existing studies often either treat Chinese actors as a homogeneous entity pursuing a collective, state-directed agenda or emphasize the collaborative networks among Chinese business groups during their transnational entrepreneurial expansion. This paper aims to fill this gap by investigating the nature and consequences of intra-Chinese competition in Africa. It draws upon a critical reading of multidisciplinary literature in international businesses, management studies and economic geography, an extensive review of empirical cases across Africa, as well as field research in Ethiopia and Nigeria. Findings shed light on the competitive interests, logics, and strategies of Chinese overseas actors in construction, telecommunications, manufacturing, and retail sectors, and identify the challenges associated with managing intra-Chinese competition and fostering positive economic impacts in Africa.

Middle Powers and Soft-Power Rivalry: Egyptian–Israeli Competition in Africa

Abstract Scholars of international relations have long recognized the importance of soft power in great powers’ hegemonic designs. In contrast, we know little of middle powers’ employment of noncoercive strategies of attraction and, in particular, how soft power operates in the context of middle-power antagonism. We suggest that, first, soft power enhances coalition-building strategies for middle powers. Contrary to expectations that states join forces against a shared threat, the use of soft power via development aid produces an “Us” versus “Them” distinction in target states that unites them in the absence of a common enemy. Second, middle states’ soft-power strategies are likely to support coalition maintenance so long as it does not challenge target states’ national interests. Utilizing extensive archival and interview-based data, we examine how soft power featured in Egyptian–Israeli competition across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) from 1957 to 1974. We demonstrate how soft power operates beyond the context of great power agenda setting, therefore providing novel evidence for the importance of soft power in the interplay between interstate antagonism and noncoercion in world politics.

Evolution of innovation systems, economic growth, and sustainable competitiveness in Africa

This paper examines the systemic relationship between triple helix innovation systems and the gross domestic product per capita growth (GDPPC) in terms of sustainable competitiveness in Africa. To do this, the Generalized Moment Method on the panel vector autoregressive model is used to estimate helix models’ (triple helix, quadruple helix, quintuple helix, as well as the open quintuple helix, relative to external contributions) effects on GDPPC between 2007 and 2019 in 27 African countries, and causality tests completion as well. The results show 3 coevolution relationships resulting from the narrow innovation system, which is made up of the burden of government regulations, companies’ expenditures on research and development (R&D) as well as the quality of scientific research institutions. The system expansion (the broad innovation system) with the degree of consumer orientation and natural resource rents generate both 7 (respectively 3 and 4) coevolution relationships. Finally, the opening of the innovation system by considering the business impact of rules on foreign direct investment (BIFDI) alone, generates 5 coevolution relationships. So, in terms of overall sustainable competitiveness strategies in Africa, countries must focus on innovation system opening and natural resources exploitation to increase their GDPPC. Thus, this study fills the gap of a deficit in technological policy orientation on the relationships between innovation systems and sustainable competitiveness through economic growth in Africa.

Fruit safety regulations in the transatlantic region: How are Africa’s exports faring with the regulations?

The regulations of fruit trade for safe consumption are taken seriously in the EU and US markets to protect the health of the consumers, animals, plants and environmental safety, and thereby reduce health expenditures. The fruit safety regulations as trade policy measures could be either trade-promoting or -impeding. The extensiveness and intensiveness of fruit safety regulations in these markets often have consequences for exporters from Africa and their desire to attain sustainable economic development. The effects of fruit safety regulations are heterogeneous across economic agents. To this end, many stakeholders in Africa’s food system have perceived compliance with these food regulatory measures as necessary conditions to access the developed countries’ markets, particularly in the EU and US. Besides, the competitiveness of Africa’s fruit exports has been impacted by the preponderance of the measures despite its comparative advantages in the fruits sub-sector. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of the EU and US sanitary and phytosanitary measures on Africa’s fruit exports. The empirical strategy involves the use of an augmented gravity model which explore the disentangling of these impact at the extensive and intensive margins of exports. Given the nature of trade data and specifically for this study, the zero trade flows are considered at both margins of exports for 45 African countries from 1995 to 2017. This study finds that the US market is more trade-impeding to Africa’s fruit exports than the EU market. Thus, Africa needs policies tweaking in the fruit value chain quality infrastructure, fruits’ quality and standards enforcement, capacity development, continuous update and modernisation of the fruits’ safety laws, directives and/or regulations. This will enhance the fruits’ quality to propel their access to the transatlantic markets.

Russia’s Loans as a Means of Geoeconomic Competition in Africa and Latin America

ABSTRACT Based on the evidence of Russia’s activity in Latin America and Africa, the paper explores the country’s lending policies as part of the country’s economic statecraft. Russia joined the group of countries that provide loans to other governments only quite recently, using the flow of resources from oil sales. As a latecomer, Russia and its companies target states with markets unoccupied by Western competitors. Russia even supports regimes with low credibility and provides them with political and economic support. Because of this high-yield but also high-risk strategy, it faces problems and losses in countries such as Venezuela or Libya.

Desmond Osaretin Oriakhogba: Copyright, Collective Management Organizations and Competition in Africa

Desmond Osaretin Oriakhogba: Copyright, Collective Management Organizations and Competition in Africa

U.S-China Competition in Africa: The Strategic Ambiguity

This paper briefly discusses the essence of the US-China competition in Africa and introduces a principial categorization to group their respective interests in Africa. It is about what US and China individually want or seek to achieve in Africa, through their own tools and policies towards the continent. For that, we thought, understanding these elements and dimensions will enable the students of International Relations in general and of great power politics, in particular, to better elucidate the post-cold war international system dynamics especially, in the developing world. The principial categorization, through the case of the DRC, helps understand why the US-China competition is overall moderate.

BOOK NOTICES: Desmond Osaretin Oriakhogba Copyright: Collective Management and Competition in Africa (2021)

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US–China Aid Competition in Africa for Political Allegiance

US–China Aid Competition in Africa for Political Allegiance

Africa and the Indo-Pacific Dynamics: China, India, and Japan’s Strategic Competition in Africa’s Indian Ocean States

Africa and the Indo-Pacific Dynamics: China, India, and Japan’s Strategic Competition in Africa’s Indian Ocean States

Strategic Triangles: Why Europe faces a Choice Dilemma under the Post-cold war US-China competition in Africa?

Strategic Triangles: Why Europe faces a Choice Dilemma under the Post-cold war US-China competition in Africa?

Foreign Aid and Soft Power: Great Power Competition in Africa in the Early Twenty-first Century

AbstractIs foreign aid an effective instrument of soft power? Does it generate affinity for donor countries and the values they espouse? This article answers these questions in the context of Chinese aid to Africa and the competing aid regime of the United States. The study combines data on thirty-eight African countries from Afrobarometer, AidData, and the Aid Information Management Systems of African finance and planning ministries. The authors use spatial difference-in-differences to isolate the causal effects of Chinese and US aid. The study finds that Chinese aid to Africa does not increase (and may in fact reduce) beneficiaries’ support for China. By contrast, US aid appears to increase support for the United States and to strengthen recipients’ commitment to liberal democratic values, such as the belief in the importance of elections. Chinese aid does not appear to weaken this commitment, and may strengthen it. The study also finds that Chinese aid increases support for the UK, France and other former colonial powers. These findings advance our understanding of the conditions under which competing aid regimes generate soft power and facilitate the transmission of political principles and ideals.

Bank Competition in Africa: Do Institutional Quality and Cross-border Banking Matter?

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the implications of cross-border banking (CBB) and institutional quality (IQ) for bank competition in Africa. It applies a two-step estimation procedure using bank-level panel data for 29 African countries. In step one, the Boone indicator and the Lerner index are used to gauge bank competition in a given country in Africa. In the second step, it analyzes the sources of bank competition placing emphasis on the impact of CBB and IQ. The results suggest that competition increased in the period of 2002–2005, before decreasing somewhat between 2006 and 2007 and increasing again thereafter. The results also show that cross-border banking enhances bank competition in African countries with stronger governance structures and institutional quality. These results are robust to an array of controls including an alternative methodology, variable specifications, and the regulatory environments that banks operate in.