Increasing numbers of emerging economies around the world are developing political and economic relations with African states in pursuit of a number of strategic goals.

Policy-makers in Europe and North America have generally been slow in recognising Africa's changing role, and remain fixated on purely humanitarian and developmental perspectives.

Chatham House is utilising its strong contacts with governmental and non-governmental actors across Africa and around the world to help them to understand better these changing dynamics, and the challenges and opportunities they bring. The foreign policies (or lack of them) of the European Union and it's members, the US and emerging powers are impartially assessed, including a chapter on US policy in Sub-Saharan Africa in America and a Changed World: A Question of Leadership. This project considers the policies themselves, who has influence in forming them, and reactions to them in Africa.

The Africa Programme runs several research projects focused on Asian re-engagement in Africa and results of Asian competition in Africa. Research on the impact of Asian National Oil Companies in Angola and Nigeria culminated in a report, Thirst for African Oil published in August 2009. A Chinese language version is now available also. A working paper on China and Angola was published by CSIS in Washington DC in March 2008 - Angola and China: A Pragmatic Partnership.

This work on China builds on research by the Africa Programme on China in Africa which has been published in The World Today, the South African Journal of International Affairs and Current History to date. In February 2008, China's Special Envoy on Darfur gave a keynote address at Chatham House - Darfur and Sino-African Relations - a sign of our growing engagement with China.

Chatham House is also working on Indian policy towards Africa building on our 2007 publication of a briefing paper - India in West Africa: A Burgeoning Relationship. In 2008 we published on India in the African Indian Ocean Rim and co-edited a special issue of the South African Journal of International Affairs on India in Africa, launched in April 2008 to coincide with the first India-Africa Forum in New Delhi. In April 2010 a major conference looked at India's modern-day relationship with African countries and the future engagement between India and the continent. A report summarizes the conference. Ahead of the 2011 India-Africa Forum, a collection of resources examine India-Africa relations.

From 2008 - 2010, we undertook a project to consider international policy towards Africa and options for improving its effectiveness in the post-G8 world. This project was carried out thanks to the generous support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and a major report, Our Common Strategic Interests: Africa's role in the Post-G8 World, was published in June 2010 in the run up to the G8 and G20 conferences in Canada, co-hosted with South Korea. The report argues that African countries are playing a more strategic role in international affairs and that global players which understand this and develop greater diplomatic and trade relations with African states will be greatly advantaged.

Ahead of the 2010 EU-Africa Summit, we compiled a list of resources to understand and explain the policy implications of the relationships between the European Union and the African Union and their constituent members.

Resources

Implementing the EU Concept on Mediation: Learning from the Cases of Sudan and the Great Lakes
Report for the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs
Roger Middleton, Paul Melly, Alex Vines, June 2011

EU-Africa Summit resources
November 2010

Our Common Strategic Interests: Africa's Role in the Post-G8 World
Chatham House Report
Tom Cargill, June 2010

Sub-Saharan Africa: Providing Strategic Vision or Fire-Fighting?
Chapter from, America and a Changed World: A Question of Leadership
Alex Vines and Tom Cargill, May 2010

Two Years on from the Forum Summit: The Future of Africa-India Engagement
Conference Report, April 2010

Thirst for African Oil: Asian National Oil Companies in Nigeria and Angola
Chatham House Report
Alex Vines, Lillian Wong, Markus Weimer and Indira Campos, August 2009

Options for the EU to Support the African Peace and Security Architecture
Programme Paper
Alex Vines and Roger Middleton, June 2008

India's Engagement with the African Indian Ocean Rim States
Programme Paper
Alex Vines and Bereni Oruitemeka, April 2008

Angola and China: A Pragmatic Partnership
Working Paper
Indira Campos and Alex Vines, March 2008

Darfur and Sino-African Relations
Transcript, audio and video
Ambassador Liu Guijin, Chinese Government Special Representative on Darfur, February 2008

India and West Africa: A Burgeoning Relationship
Briefing Paper
Sushant K Singh, April 2007

View more papers

Contact

For more information please contact Tom Cargill.