Africa
South Africa: Strange noises in the cabinet
President Cyril Ramaphosa and the African National Congress lost ground badly in South Africa’s June elections, declining to 40 per cent of the vote. The result has forced the ANC…
Aid discrepancies: Australia’s modest help to the Horn of Africa
In a recent press release, Australia announced an aid package of $23 million to address the critical needs of the Horn of Africa region. While the gesture is commendable, it falls…
Russia’s shadow tanker fleet runs into trouble
Barring new evasive techniques by Kremlin technocrats, the rapid rise in Russia’s shadow tanker fleet since the Ukraine war may be reversing as pressure is brought to bear on…
Australia and Africa: Economic diplomacy is out of sync with investment ties
Two West African nations report that Australia – and not France, the United States or China – is their largest foreign investor. Large Australia-linked energy and minerals…
Seychelles: Washington comes calling
The United States has announced it is reopening its embassy in Seychelles. The mission, opened at independence in 1976, was closed as a cost cutting measure in 1996 coincident…
Coup d’État in Gabon: Oil, champagne, and China’s geopolitical opportunity
On Wednesday 30 August, a group of Gabonese military officers announced that they had assumed power and placed President Ali Bongo Ondimba under house arrest. Minutes earlier, the…
Shadows of the state: How Wagner Group extends Russian reach in Africa
The Wagner Group was notorious long before its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin had his dramatic falling out with the Kremlin in recent weeks. Ostensibly a private military company,…
Women belong everywhere and this World Cup proves football can be the great equaliser
For those who love sport as much as international policy, it’s a glorious moment when the two come together.
And right now, all eyes are on the FIFA Women’s World Cup in…
Who leads the world as longest in charge of their country?
Hun Sen heads to the polls in Cambodia this weekend, even though, as Radio Free Asia noted, the result is preordained. Hun Sen will win. Just like he has ever since 1985.
Hun…
It’s time Australia branded Russia’s Wagner Group a terrorist organisation
The French parliament has recently designated Russia’s Wagner Group, led by Vladimir Putin’s “chef” Yevgenyi Prigozhin, as a terrorist organisation. Paris has called for the wider…