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 ...
Bronwyn Bruton
Director of Programs and Studies, Africa Center, Atlantic Council
...
Gabriel Negatu
Former Director General, African Development Bank; Senior Fellow, Africa Center, Atlantic Council
...

RELATED CONTENT

  • March 10, 2023
    The roots of decoloniality go deep into modern African history. Debates have circulated across the continent and beyond to define an African epistemè freed from colonialism. Production of ...
  • Authors
    March 3, 2023
    In recent years, personalist rule has spread around the world. As personalist rule gets upgraded and adopted across regions and regime-type, including in democracies, Africa and the Middle East are looking less exceptional, and mainstream academic theories are being challenged. The 2011 uprisings and their aftermath have destabilized social science thinking about Africa and the Middle East, creating an opportunity for fruitful cross-regional dialogue around concepts like personal ru ...
  • February 14, 2023
    تعتبر ملحمة الفريق الوطني المغربي خلال البطولة العالمية لكرة القدم بالدوحة 2022، حدثا رياضيا كبيرا، لكنه حدث يتجاوز الإطار الرياضي. يتعلق الأمر، كذلك، بحدث يهم المغرب طبعا، ولكنه يتجاوزه. لأن صداه كان عالميا. ولأنه كان مصدر فرح وبهجة عارمة وكذا اعتزاز كل الشعوب المغاربية والعربية والإفريقية، وبصفة عامة شعوب الجنوب، التي تملكت منجز فريقنا الوطني إلى الحد الذي اعتبرت أنه أصبح يمثلها. بالتالي، فهو فريق مغربي، أصبح بفضل منجزه، فريقا مغاربيا وعربيا وإفريقيا، وأصبح كأنه ينتمي إلى الجنوب ...
  • Authors
    January 27, 2023
    La Résolution adoptée à une majorité imposante par les élus européens à Strasbourg le 10 juin 2021 sur « la violation de la Convention des Nations unies relative aux droits de l'enfant et l'instrumentalisation des mineurs par les autorités dans la crise migratoire à Ceuta » (2021/2747/CRSP), ne pouvait que faire date. Décrypter la Résolution La Résolution avait choqué les Marocains au point qu'elle a été rapidement mise de côté sur le moment, comme si on voulait l'oublier le plus ...
  • December 30, 2022
    L’épopée de l’équipe marocaine lors de la Coupe du monde de football, à Doha en 2022, est un évènement immense, évidemment sportif, mais qui dépasse la sphère du sport. C’est un évènement qui concerne évidemment aussi le Maroc mais le dépasse. Son écho a été mondial. Il a été ressenti comme une source de joie, de ferveur et de fierté par les peuples maghrébins, arabes et africains, et plus généralement, par le Sud, qui se sont appropriés cette belle équipe et ...
  • Authors
    December 9, 2022
    The global wave of democratic retrenchment has not spared North Africa as seen in the cases of Tunisia and Sudan, where democratic transitions have stalled or regressed into autocracy. How do to explain Tunisia and Sudan’s troubled transitions from authoritarian rule? Both states are attempting to transition from single-party authoritarianism. In both cases, economic crises exacerbated by COVID, the Russian-Ukraine war, and involvement by external actors stymied the fragile transiti ...