Russia and Angola: The Rebirth of a Strategic Partnership?

Africa and Russia in general, and Angola and Russia in particular, have a long-standing friendship dating back to the days when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was assisting African national liberation movements in gaining independence.

South Africa’s nuclear programme: A view from 2023

Photo © Michael Kappel

At an energy stakeholder meeting in parliament held on 19 September 2013, all four presentations by the nuclear lobby – including the Department of Energy (DOE) – typified what behavioural economist Daniel Kahneman calls a ‘planning fallacy’. This essentially describes plans and forecasts that ‘are unrealistically close to best-case scenarios [and] could be improved by consulting statistics of similar cases’.

Westgate represents Africa’s Somali malaise

Photo © Kenyan Government/ Manoah Esipisu

Just over a month ago, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya wrote an op-ed about the tremendous opportunities that were opening up to Kenya and east Africa from their geographical positioning in one of the world’s most dynamic regions – the Indian Ocean Rim.

A Critical Assessment of the G-20 Food Security Agenda

As part of the Global Economic Governance project undertaken by the South African Institute of International Affairs in collaboration with the International Development Law Unit at the University of Pretoria, a critical assessment was recently undertaken to evaluate how effectively Africa’s interests and concerns are directly and indirectly addressed in the Group of Twenty (G-20) processes.

AGOA: more critical than ever to both African and US economies

Photo © GCIS

A full agenda of dialogues with US Congress, US business and the US administration has been prepared for South Africa’s Trade and Industry Minister, Rob Davies, as his department starts South Africa’s lobbying effort for the seamless renewal of the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA). Minister Davies and his senior aides travelled to the US last week to cajole the US congress and other thought leaders of the importance of US–Africa economic relations, as well as to argue South Africa’s case for an unfettered renewal of AGOA.

SA-UK Relations: Collective Understanding and Mutual Trust Needed

© British High Commission in Pretoria/Flickr

South Africans may not appreciate that a diplomatic Bilateral Forum between South Africa and the United Kingdom is something unusual for the British. Pretoria has many similar arrangements and it can be difficult to keep track of them all, but for the United Kingdom it is rare and in Africa, it occurs only with South Africa.