The emergence of Brazil, China and India to geo-economic and political prominence in the last thirty years is beginning to reshape and condition if not constrain the international relations of African polities. Significantly these three countries are actively courting African countries in pursuit of their economic, political, trade, diplomatic and financial interests on the African continent. At this key juncture in Africa’s history in which the makings of a multi-polar world is in palpable evidence it is crucial that some critical light is shed on the underlying reasons and forms (especially institutional) by which emerging powers such as Brazil, China and India are interacting with Africa and Africa’s role in shaping such interactions and what all this portends for the future of the world.
In earlier works I have analyzed for example the ways in which China constructs her soft hegemonic power in Africa via architecture and construction; the expressions of African agency in Africa-China relations through migratory flows from the continent; the ideational import of China’s success for public policy theorizing for developing polities and the strategic questions that the rise of new powers raises for African polities among others. The monograph/book will attempt therefore to link all of these works and reflections into a longer, denser narrative which seeks to understand Africa’s place and future in the grand schemes of these emergent powers, Africa’s own strategic maneuvers and the geo-political, economic and strategic import for the world. The monograph will be broadly empirico-theoretical(and set within the disciplines of international relations and development studies) implying that it will framed by a critical engagement with the empirics of the relations between Africa and these emerging powers while providing some theoretical propositions and claims. For example is the claim made in the literature that China is a new imperial power solely seeking her interests in Africa as against the other view that China is in Africa as a friend accurate ways to understand Africa-China relations? Can Africa-China relations be theorized differently based on the empirics of this ever evolving relationship? What defines Africa-India relations? Is Brazil Africa’s reluctant or partially engaged partner?