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Fighting for Africa: External Power competition in the Red Sea & Sahel

From

14
3:00 pm December 2020

To

14
5:30 pm December 2020

The Policy Center for the New South recently partnered with the Atlantic Council Africa Center on a pair of reports exploring the evolving roles of both traditional and emerging external powers in Africa in the post-COVID era. In its report, Emerging Powers in Africa: Key Drivers, Differing Interests, and Future Perspectives, the PCNS outlines how emerging powers are muscling their way into African markets, crowding a region already beset with security challenges. The complementary Africa Center report, African Agency in the New Cold War: Traditional Power Competition in the Post-COVID-19 African Landscape, focuses on Africa’s traditional external powers breaking down the economic and security flash-points that a “new Cold War” could precipitate, while noting with optimism the significant room for African agency even in sensitive fields like Chinese debt and global tech competition. 

In this framework, the Policy Center for the New South, in partnership with the Atlantic Council Africa Center, will organize on Monday, December 14 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. (GMT+1) and Wednesday, December 16 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (GMT+1) two regionally-focused launch events. The first session will focus on the Horn of Africa and Red Sea, where conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia is winding down alongside a pre-existing scramble for economic and security influence. The second session will feature a discussion of the Sahel, where a US draw-down is rumored despite an uptick in violence. 

 

Session I: External Power competition in the Red Sea

Foreign powers are grappling for influence across the African continent, but competition has been particularly fierce in the Red Sea. With Ethiopia, long viewed as a bulwark against instability in the Horn of Africa, emerging from conflict, there is a new opportunity to cement the peace with Eritrea. Increased access to the sea could provide an immense peace dividend to the region—and especially to the people of Tigray. How will key external actors, especially the UAE and China, react to this moment of transition? And will the United States and Europe attempt to repair relations with the region, or risk being left out in the cold? 

Session II: External Power competition in the Sahel 

President Trump may not enact his threatened US drawdown of troops from the Sahel, but President Biden will still face pressure to end America’s “forever wars” and reduce the number of American lives and treasure lost to fighting terrorism in Africa. If the United States pulls back from the Sahel, terrorist groups active there may seek to export unrest to more-secure coastal countries like Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Benin, and Togo. Can Europe fill the void? And will Russia, China, or other actors try to move in and assert their own influence in the region? 

Monday, December 14th, 2020

15h00 – 16h00

External Power competition in the Red Sea

Chair: Bronwyn Bruton, Director of Programs and Studies, Africa Center, Atlantic Council

Speakers:

. Maha Skah, International Relations Specialist, Policy Center for the New South

. Gabriel Negatu, Former Director General, African Development Bank; Senior Fellow, Africa Center, Atlantic Council

. Khalid Chegraoui, Senior Fellow, Policy Center for the New South

Wednesday, December 16th, 2020

16h00 – 17h00

External Power competition in the Sahel

Chair: Khalid Chegraoui, Senior Fellow, Policy Center for the New South TBC

Speakers:

. Pierre Englebert, H. Russell Smith Professor of International Relations, Pomona College; Senior Fellow, Africa Center, Atlantic Council

. Rida Lyammouri, Senior Fellow, Policy Center for the New South

. Abdoul Salam Bello, Senior Project Officer, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification; Senior Fellow, Africa Center, Atlantic Council  

 

Speakers
Khalid Chegraoui
Senior Fellow
Khalid Chegraoui is Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South and Vice Dean of Political Sciences and International Relations at the Faculty of Governance, Economic and Social Sciences of the Mohammed VI University.  He began his teaching and research career in 1992 as a Research Assistant Professor at Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah University in Fez after earning his first doctorate in African Studies from the Mohammed V University in Rabat focusing on West Sub-Saharan Africa. He also earned a Doctorate of State in African Studies from the same University in 2002, where he focused on Contemporary West Africa, in 2003 he became Professor of History and Political Anthropology at the Institute of African Studies, Mohammed V University, consultant on African and Middle Ea ...
Bronwyn Bruton
Director of Programs and Studies, Africa Center, Atlantic Council
...
Maha Skah
Political Affairs Officer, United Nations
Maha Skah is a Political Affairs Officer at the Policy and Mediation Division of the United Nations Department of the Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) in New York, where her role centers around providing technical and political advice on how to assess and analyze climate-related peace and security risks and how to integrate climate considerations into the Department of the Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) conflict prevention, peacebuilding, and peacemaking work. Maha Skah previously worked at the Policy Center for the New South as an International Relations Specialist, where her research activities focused on geopolitics in Africa and climate change policies, and at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation (OECD) on issues relating to development cooperat ...
Gabriel Negatu
Former Director General, African Development Bank; Senior Fellow, Africa Center, Atlantic Council
...
Rida Lyammouri
Senior Fellow
Rida Lyammouri is a Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South. His research activities focus on geopolitics and international relations in the West African Sahel, a region he has worked on for about a decade. He has extensive experience supporting both governmental and non-governmental organizations in the areas of international aid, development, and security. Some of the topics he covers include countering violent extremism (CVE), conflict prevention and conflict sensitivity, humanitarian access, and migration. Mr. Lyammouri has contributed to numerous in-depth research and analysis reports aiming at building deeper understanding of regional and domestic challenges. He is often solicited by various stakeholders to provide policy recommendations on how to address va ...
Abdoul Salam Bello
Senior Project Officer, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification; Senior Fellow, Africa Center, Atlantic Council
...