Interview with Ihssane Guennoun, IR Specialist, about Chinese investments and Soft Power in Africa

October 4, 2019

Questions: 1/ You mentioned in your presentation that Chinese Investments in Africa are well balanced. Can you elaborate accordingly? 2/ How would you define the Chinese Soft Power in Africa? 3/ How to explain China's interest for new African partners, including its recent commitment for social infrastructures?

Speakers
Ihssane Guennoun
International Relations Specialist (On Leave)
Ihssane Guennoun is an International Relations Specialist at the Policy Center for the New South. She contributes to the Geopolitics and International Relations research program by focusing on West Africa. Her research also covers security in the Sahel region as well as recent developments of Asian players in Africa. Prior to joining the Policy Center in 2015, she spent six months at the German Marshall Fund of the United States within the Wider Atlantic program. Ihssane has a double degree in International Relations from the School of Governance and Economics of Rabat (Morocco) and the Institute of Political Studies of Aix-en-Provence (France). ...

RELATED CONTENT

  • Authors
    February 17, 2022
    Their boat-if you name a large rubber pumped up like a giant tire, was rocked by waves, and the engine halted its movements. On November 24, all the 29 passengers tried to reach coastguard stations in France and England via their cell phones few minutes between life and death. No one answered, and when finally contact was established by another, still floating migrant boat, witnessing the tragedy in the making (New York Times December 14, 2021), they were asked to pinpoint their l ...
  • February 10, 2022
    Africafé est une émission du Policy Center for the New South qui décrypte l’actualité des organisations africaines et de l’Afrique. A travers de courtes interviews, l’émission tente de proposer d’aborder de manière pédagogique les enjeux des organisations africaines et l’actualité du co...
  • February 9, 2022
    In a country as stable as Germany, changes of Chancellor are a rarity. Angela Merkel stayed in power for sixteen years, as did Helmut Kohl in his time. The new three-party coalition (Social Democrats, Greens, Liberals) intends to shake up the country. How should Africa approach this new leadership? Can the new government bring momentum to Euro-African relations? Can Berlin bring about a clear understanding of Africa’s development issues and geopolitical subtleties? ...
  • Authors
    February 3, 2022
    His message was one of reassurance, just as a great leader has to react in a crisis. The concerns about Covid 19 was nothing but “a frenzy and psychosis”. The President knew the secret to defeat the virus: vodka, sauna, tractor. Didn’t a US president named Donald Trump suggest  that toilet cleaning disinfectants chase the virus out of infected lungs on national television? (New York Times, April 24, 2020) That was Trump-speak, sure, but the man who uttered the tractor/vodka/nonsense ...
  • Authors
    January 26, 2022
    Time was running out. The invisible, enemy combatants floated into the capital like ghosts. Unopposed, ready to take power, twenty years after they were chased out of town by American military might. August 15/16, 2021, historic days for the Taliban known for severe military and humanitarian abuses. The governor of the Central Bank of Afghanistan, Ajmar Ahmadi, did not wait for the Taliban to burst through his office doors. He disappeared, trying to find the plane waiting for his d ...
  • January 13, 2022
    Africafé est une émission du Policy Center for the New South qui décrypte l’actualité des organisations africaines et de l’Afrique. A travers de courtes interviews, l’émission tente de proposer d’aborder de manière pédagogique les enjeux des organisations africaines et l’actualité du co...
  • Authors
    January 12, 2022
    Feeble eyesight may hinder you from finding Puntland on a map, the unrecognized Federal member state in Somalia, Khaatumo State, Jubaland, or Somaliland, concerning the planet’s size just large enough to be covered by the shadow of a palm tree. Arab entities surrounded by sun and sand and the Gulf of Aden, Somaliland is surviving as a self-declared nation, located on the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Ethiopia to the south and west, Somalia ...
  • Authors
    January 10, 2022
    Le président Tshisekedi a initié, à partir de 2019, une refonte significative de la politique étrangère de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC) et des objectifs qui lui sont assignés. Cette redéfinition stratégique, marquée par un important activisme sur les plans international et continental, a permis à la RDC de briser l’isolement diplomatique auquel elle faisait face depuis 2016, de reprendre la coopération avec plusieurs partenaires importants et de redynamiser sa présence ...