How can Tanzania’s engagement with the world be optimised by Magufuli?
On 25 October 2015, Tanzanians elected John Pombe Magufuli as their president – nicknamed “The Bulldozer” for his self-assertive, brash leadership style, and his ability to push through his agenda.
African countries square up for battle over future of ivory trade ban
Three countries in southern Africa have banded together to press for the ban on international trade in ivory to be lifted.
The ‘frontline states’ in the Baltic Sea region are feeling increasingly threatened by Russia
The already-anxious, West-aligned states bordering Russia are receiving alarmingly mixed messages from their NATO allies. At its summit in Warsaw in July, NATO agreed to deploy a battalion of troops to each of the three Baltic states and Poland to protect them against possible Russian attack.
The East African Energy Frontier, a Decade On
The East Africa region has seen some of the decade’s largest natural gas and energy finds. However, despite their magnitude, these discoveries have yet to fulfil the promise of social and economic progress.
Maritime Security in the Gulf of Guinea: Establishing Law, Generating Order
Maritime security has become a buzzword in recent years as criminal activities at sea threaten a wide range of geostrategic, security and economic imperatives.
Municipal elections: No longer the warm-up game
A telling feature of South African municipal elections is the near seamless manner in which they blend into the country’s national political narratives.
Manufacturing in Southern Africa: Dream or reality? The need to integrate into Global Value Chains
A meeting on the SADC Regional Investment Framework is taking place in Johannesburg this week, to look at, amongst other priorities, investment in regional and global value chains. These discussions will take place against the background of slowing global economic growth and a decline in commodity earnings for African countries.
South Africa and the DRC: Evaluating a South–South Partnership for Peace, Governance and Development
The ‘Rise of the South’ and the role of ‘emerging powers’ in global development has animated much of the political and economic discourse of the past decade. There is, however, little empirical evidence on the contribution that emerging Southern partners make to sustainable development, due to the lack of common measurement systems for South–South cooperation (SSC).
Dismantling Zimbabwe’s ‘Deep State’
The Zimbabwean state has provided some of the biggest lessons in humility for political analysts in this century. Its government, headed by the indomitable Robert Mugabe, has failed to ‘definitively fail’ despite every warning since ZANU-PF war veterans began the land invasions that prompted the first wave of crisis in that country in 2001.
Xenophobia Trivialises South Africa’s Ambitious Africa Policy
South Africa’s grand transition and re-integration into international affairs under former president Nelson Mandela gave the country the moral resources to lead in Africa.