Securing Tomorrow: New Directions in African Defense Policy

August 15, 2025

This episode explores the evolving African defense strategies in response to emerging security threats. We discuss the shift toward regional cooperation, modernization of military capabilities, and integration of technology. The conversation highlights the role of governance, economic resilience, and diplomacy in sustaining security. It underscores Africa’s push for self-reliance and strategic autonomy in defense policy.

RELATED CONTENT

  • Authors
    March 4, 2022
    The economic sanctions against Russia announced last week by the United States and Europe following the military invasion of Ukraine are having a profound impact on the Russian economy while also having repercussions at home. As in a boxing match, the expectation is that blows to the opponent can knock them out, despite the exposure on the punching side. The United States has applied some sectoral and limited economic sanctions against Russia since the annexation of Crimea in 2014 ...
  • Authors
    March 3, 2022
    A l’issue de la première semaine de l’invasion russe, soit au 03 mars 2022, plus de 1 million de réfugiés (2,3% de la population ukrainienne) ont quitté l’Ukraine à destination de pays européens limitrophes, notamment la Pologne, mais aussi des autres pays comme la Hongrie, la Moldavie ou la Slovaquie[1]. Alors que le flux des réfugiés est sur le point de devenir la plus grande crise migratoire en Europe depuis la Seconde Guerre mondiale, la réaction des pays européens est très diff ...
  • March 2, 2022
    The purpose of this second paper is to highlight the involvement of mercenaries in decolonization processes in Africa on one hand, and the emergence of Private Military and Security Companies since the 1990s on another hand. The main argument is that despite the change in the structure of private contractors operating in Africa, their essence remains the same: security in exchange of mining concessions. Hence, the paper analyses to what extent mining companies have contributed to th ...
  • Authors
    March 1, 2022
    Dag Hammarskjöld, ancien secrétaire général de l’Organisation des Nations unies (ONU) avait, mieux que quiconque, résumé le rôle et les limites de l’organisation onusienne en proclamant que « L'ONU n'a pas été créée pour emmener l'humanité au paradis, mais pour la sauver de l'enfer ». Cette vision minimaliste et, au demeurant, réaliste, de la capacité de l’ONU à réguler les rapports internationaux, cadre parfaitement avec la maturation inachevée du processus d’évolution du droi ...
  • February 22, 2022
    Le sommet afro-européen des 17 et 18 février 2022 à Bruxelles marque la sixième édition de la rencontre de haut niveau entre les deux continents. Ce sommet, organisé traditionnellement en alternance entre l’Afrique et l’Europe, intervient dans un contexte régional et international marqué par la perspective de sortie de la pandémie de la Covid-19, l’épreuve de force entre l’Occident et la Russie et les turbulences que connaissent certaines régions africaines. Face à une E ...
  • Authors
    February 22, 2022
    “Once upon a time a classic first line in fairy tales, used by Charles Dickens, for example in his “A Christmas card” in 1843, or Charles Perrault, the French poet, writer of “Cinderella” and “Sleeping Beauty”, both published in 1697 in “histoires ou contes du temp passé” Once upon a time suggests a nostalgic touch, the good old, romantic days glamourized because negative memories are annihilated and deposed in the dustbin of the human mind. Once upon a time, Beirut, the capital ci ...
  • February 18, 2022
    Presiding over the Council of the European Union, France has big ambitions but enormous challenges ahead. Migration remains a deeply divisive topic, and European sovereignty in the techno ...
  • Authors
    January 31, 2022
    It has been more than 100 years since Germany manifested colonial power, a dark period of history indeed. Political and military leaders, supported by its ruler, Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia, committed crimes against humanity on African land.  The first genocide of the 20th Century, mass killings of 65 000 Herero in Africa, today known as Namibia. Between 1904 and 1908, Germany suffocated humanity in concentration camps like Shark Island, forcing them ...