Fighting for Africa: External Power competition in the Red Sea

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Fighting for Africa: External Power competition in the Red Sea

December 14, 2020

Foreign powers are grappling for influence across the African continent, but competition has been particularly fierce in the Red Sea. With Ethiopia, long viewed as a bulwark against instability in the Horn of Africa, emerging from conflict, there is a new opportunity to cement the peace with Eritrea. Increased access to the sea could provide an immense peace dividend to the region—and especially to the people of Tigray. How will key external actors, especially the UAE and China, react to this moment of transition? And will the United States and Europe attempt to repair relations with the region, or risk being left out in the cold? Chair: Bronwyn Bruton, Director of Programs and Studies, Africa Center, Atlantic Council Speakers: . Maha Skah, International Relations Specialist, Policy Center for the New South . Gabriel Negatu, Former Director General, African Development Bank; Senior Fellow, Africa Center, Atlantic Council . Khalid Chegraoui, Senior Fellow, Policy Center for the New South

Speakers

Maha Skah

Political Affairs Officer, United Nations

Maha Skah is a Political Affairs Officer at the Policy and Mediation Division of the United Nations Department of the Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) in New York, where her role centers around providing technical and political advice on how to assess and analyze climate-related peace and security risks and how to integrate climate considerations into the Department of the Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) conflict prevention, peacebuilding, and peacemaking work. Maha Skah previously worked at the Policy Center for the New South as an International Relations Specialist, where her research activities focused on geopolitics in Africa and climate change policies, and at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation (OECD) on issues relating to development cooperat ...

Khalid Chegraoui

Senior Fellow

Khalid Chegraoui is Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South and Vice Dean of Political Sciences and International Relations at the Faculty of Governance, Economic and Social Sciences of the Mohammed VI University. He began his teaching and research career in 1992 as a Research Assistant Professor at Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah University in Fez after earning his first doctorate in African Studies from the Mohammed V University in Rabat focusing on West Sub-Saharan Africa. He also earned a Doctorate of State in African Studies from the same University in 2002, where he focused on Contemporary West Africa, in 2003 he became Professor of History and Political Anthropology at the Institute of African Studies, Mohammed V University, consultant on African and Middle Ea ...