Interview with Ihssane Guennoun, IR Specialist, about Chinese investments and Soft Power in Africa

October 4, 2019

Questions: 1/ You mentioned in your presentation that Chinese Investments in Africa are well balanced. Can you elaborate accordingly? 2/ How would you define the Chinese Soft Power in Africa? 3/ How to explain China's interest for new African partners, including its recent commitment for social infrastructures?

Speakers
Ihssane Guennoun
International Relations Specialist (On Leave)
Ihssane Guennoun is an International Relations Specialist at the Policy Center for the New South. She contributes to the Geopolitics and International Relations research program by focusing on West Africa. Her research also covers security in the Sahel region as well as recent developments of Asian players in Africa. Prior to joining the Policy Center in 2015, she spent six months at the German Marshall Fund of the United States within the Wider Atlantic program. Ihssane has a double degree in International Relations from the School of Governance and Economics of Rabat (Morocco) and the Institute of Political Studies of Aix-en-Provence (France). ...

RELATED CONTENT

  • Authors
    June 28, 2016
    Geographically, Egypt is located at the crossroads of several areas that are sometimes homogeneous and other times contradictory. These areas offer Egypt multiple opportunities to position itself in the region and in the world. However, the country is forced to manage its neighborhood’s contradictions. Historically, Egypt has inherited a past leadership that it is unable to maintain in absence of adequate leverage capacity. Its current resources and problems handicap its dream of re ...
  • Authors
    June 28, 2016
    Géographiquement l’Egypte se trouve au carrefour de plusieurs espaces parfois présentant une certaine homogénéité et parfois contradictoires. Ces espaces lui offrent de multiples opportunités de positionnement dans la région et dans le monde. Mais, le pays est mis dans l’obligation de gérer les contradictions de son voisinage. Dans un autre registre, celui de l’histoire l’Egypte hérite d’un passé de leadership qu’elle ne peut maintenir faute de capacité d’influence adéquate. Ses moy ...
  • Authors
    June 23, 2016
    En l’automne 2015 la Russie décide d’intervenir en Syrie. Elle joint le geste à la parole, et arrive à remettre sur pied un régime qui fut chancelant après Quatre années de guerre civile. Cette intervention est alors vue par moult observateurs comme une action dictée par les relations historiques entre le régime des Bechar et l’ancienne URSS. Ce point de vue conforte l’opinion qui veut que la Russie ne soit qu’une version actuelle de l’ancienne URSS. Elle a hérité de sa place au Co ...
  • June 9, 2016
    Political Developments: Towards a Political Transition? Countries in the Sahel are facing political changes that seriously affect the African continent at large. This blog attempts to give an overview of the recent political developments in the region before focusing on the ongoing challenges. Starting 2011, Libya went through the Arab Spring protest leading to the current political deadlock. The escalation of violence combined with a rising death toll forced the international com ...
  • May 30, 2016
    Ethiopia is located at the heart of the Horn of Africa. Torn between its position within the Greater Middle East (Culcasi 2008, 128 and Fukuyama 2008, 206) from one side, and Sub Saharan Africa on the other, this East African state is landlocked in a region marked by intense and long-standing political strife and conflicts, and is directly exposed to regional insecurity and political volatility. Against this unstable background, successive regimes and governments in Addis Ababa have ...
  • Authors
    Silvia Colombo
    Mohamed El Harrak
    Nicolò Sartori
    May 27, 2016
    Energy is at the core of the remarkable current transitions in the global economy and geopolitics, and natural gas plays a crucial role in these processes. In this context of rapidly evolving trends at the market level and developing dynamics between regional and global actors, The Future of Natural Gas aims at analysing the role of natural gas in the future energy mix by considering several key factors: the ambitious climate policies agreed by the international community, cost issu ...
  • May 24, 2016
    This podcast is performed by Nicolás de Pedro. Central Asia is back on great powers’ agenda. The region plays a primary and decisive role in both China’s Silk Road Project and Russian-led ...