Great Powers and Africa: Overview

• Established Powers and Africa
• Emerging Powers and Africa
• Staff
• Funding

SAIIA's Great Powers and Africa research cluster looks at the full spectrum of South Africa and Africa's foreign relations with Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and North America and key states within these regions which are of particular importance to Africa. These include Africa's relationships with established powers such as the European Union (EU) and its key member states, the United States of America and Japan; emerging powers such as Brazil, India and China; and re-emerging powers such as Russia. There are other countries that form a second layer of emerging powers: Indonesia, Mexico, Vietnam, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, and a few petro-states. The petro-states, mainly the Gulf Cooperation States (GCC), including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), are also growing in global importance.

Defining emerging powers is not without difficulties as there are no clear-cut variables that assist to make a neat differentiation between emerging powers and other significant states that are often not included in the definitional category. There is a burgeoning literature examining these new trends, looking at different dimensions: production and trade patterns; global finance and investment linkages; consumption patterns; resource contestations in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world; and the role of emerging powers in global governance mechanisms.

Various studies undertaken on this theme – such as The Big Ten by Jeffrey Garten, BRICS and The Next 11 by Goldman Sachs, Seeing the Elephant by Peter Marber, and the 2009 OECD study on Globalisation and the Emerging Economies – help us to better assess which countries could more accurately be regarded as emerging powers and which are not. Impressive growth rates, large resource bases, expanding markets, regional hegemons, favourable positioning in the global power hierarchy, significant population size, the growing size of the middle classes and rising (energy) consumption patterns, the rising resource demand, massive infrastructure development and industrialisation, and active foreign policies are some of the most salient features.

Furthermore, competition for strategic resources is intense amongst these countries and between them and established powers. These contestations are played out on the commercial landscape and are about securing long-term security of access to energy and mineral resources. Thus foreign policies of nations, especially those of emerging powers, are driven through the filter of commercial interests, and the African continent is a canvass on which these are most manifest. Given the long-standing relations between various African countries and established powers, the political and normative permutations that are likely to emerge out of this intense relationship between emerging powers and key African states requires close attention.

Established Powers and Africa

SAIIA's current work on established powers and Africa focuses on key member states within the EU, as well as the G7. In addition, key strategic cross-continental relationships – such as the Joint EU-Africa Strategy, the American Growth and Opportunity Act, and the South Africa-EU Strategic Partnership – are analysed more closely. SAIIA has a long-established project on EU-Africa relations.

Click below for further information:

• EU and Africa Project
• US and Africa
• Other publications on Established Powers and Africa

Emerging Powers and Africa

SAIIA's current work on emerging powers and Africa focuses on four key states: Brazil, Russia, India and China. SAIIA has a long-standing project on China-Africa relations, and we have recently begun to analyse India-Africa relations through the spectrum of security cooperation and competition. The security cooperation aspect of this work focuses primarily on the Indian peacekeeping operations in Africa, while the competition aspect of the work looks at maritime cooperation between African littoral and island states in the Indian Ocean with India. SAIIA's Brazilian research is focused on unravelling the key drivers of Brazil's foreign policy and its potential relevance for Africa.

Click below for further information:

• China in Africa Project
• India and Africa
• Brazil and Africa
• Russia and Africa
• Other publications on Emerging Powers and Africa

Staff

Funding

SAIIA's research on Great Powers and Africa is supported by the UK Department for International Development (Dfid), the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA).