Back

Fighting for Africa: External Power competition in the Red Sea

December 14, 2020
Related topics: 
International Relations
Geopolitics
Security & Defense
Africa

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? 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

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

RELATED CONTENT

  • Download PDF
    Cuando la política oculta la independencia de la justicia sudafricana
    Authors
    Mohammed Loulichki
    July 21, 2017
    La decisión del 15 de junio de 2017 del Tribunal Supremo de Sudáfrica, ordenando mantener el embargo del cargamento del fosfato marroquí con destino a Nueva Zelanda y remitir el caso a un juicio sobre el fondo, plantea tanto la cuestión de la capacidad del Polisario para entablar una acción ante una jurisdicción internacional como la de la independencia de la justicia Sudafricana en relación a las posiciones adoptadas por el gobierno de dicho país. ...
  • Download PDF
    Challenges for Transatlantic Counterterrorism Cooperation in North Africa
    Authors
    Christopher S. Chivvis
    June 20, 2017
    The United States and Europe share a common interest in addressing the growing terrorist threats from North Africa. The emergence of ISIL as a force in the region — notably in Libya, but also in Egypt and to a lesser degree in Tunisia, Algeria, and Mali — is cause for genuine concern. The ISIL challenge is compounded by the persistence of older terrorist organizations, both local ones such as the region’s various Ansar al Sharias as well as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), al ...
  • Download PDF
    Africa’s natural resources and geopolitical realities
    Authors
    Abdelhak Bassou
    May 25, 2017
    For its 6th edition, the Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa, held in Bahir Dar on Lake Tana in Ethiopia from April 22 to 23, 2017, focused on the theme of Natural Resource Governance in Africa. One of the forum session’s key discussion points sought to "understand and explain why the exploitation of these resources is increasingly a source of tension and violence, which have dramatic repercussions on the continent’s peace and stability." During the various events throughout ...
  • Download PDF
    Relations entre le Maroc et l’Afrique subsaharienne : Quels potentiels pour le commerce et les investissements directs étrangers ?
    Authors
    Rim Berahab
    February 1, 2017
    L’analyse des relations commerciales entre le Maroc et l’Afrique subsaharienne fait ressortir un volume des échanges croissants, reflétant ainsi une dynamisation continue des leurs relations commerciales. Une tendance similaire est observée au niveau des investissements directs étrangers, qui ne cessent de croître au cours des dernières années, traduisant la volonté du Maroc à devenir un acteur majeur dans le développement du continent africain. Ce Policy Brief présente dans un prem ...
  • Reconfiguration of the Global South: Africa and Latin America and the 'Asian Century'
    Authors
    Eckart Woertz
    November 24, 2016
    Face aux bouleversements à ses frontières orientales et méridionales, l'Union européenne a cherché à trouver des réponses en révisant sa Politique européenne de voisinage et en publiant une nouvelle stratégie globale de politique étrangère et de sécurité. Au-delà des documents, quelles réalités de l'impact européen dans son voisinage ? La Politique européenne de voisinage (PEV) a été initiée en 2003 avec des déclinaisons régionales au Sud avec l’Union pour la Méditerranée depuis 20 ...
  • Download PDF
    Le Golfe de Guinée, zone de contrastes : Richesses et vulnérabilités
    Authors
    Abdelhak Bassou
    September 15, 2016
    Les sous-régions et espaces d’intégration, anciens ou improvisés prolifèrent en Afrique. Ces structures sont communément désignées sous l’appellation : Communauté économique régionale (CER)1. A côté de l’Union africaine qui se veut l’organe d’intégration par excellence, d’autres structures sous régionales africaines font figure de phase intermédiaire pour faciliter l’intégration globale du continent. Certaines de ces sous-régions sont institutionnelles, d’autres sont de simples comm ...
  • Download PDF
    The geopolitics of Egypt: Strengths, Opportunities, Constraints and Vulnerabilities
    Authors
    Abdelhak Bassou
    June 28, 2016
    Geographically, Egypt is located at the crossroads of several areas that are sometimes homogeneous and other times contradictory. These areas offer Egypt multiple opportunities to position itself in the region and in the world. However, the country is forced to manage its neighborhood’s contradictions. Historically, Egypt has inherited a past leadership that it is unable to maintain in absence of adequate leverage capacity. Its current resources and problems handicap its dream of re ...
  • The Evolving Landscape in the Sahel: a Snapshot
    Authors
    Ihssane Guennoun
    June 9, 2016
    Political Developments: Towards a Political Transition? Countries in the Sahel are facing political changes that seriously affect the African continent at large. This blog attempts to give an overview of the recent political developments in the region before focusing on the ongoing challenges. Starting 2011, Libya went through the Arab Spring protest leading to the current political deadlock. The escalation of violence combined with a rising death toll forced the international com ...