The Hudson Institute published on 4 July 2026 an analysis titled "The Kremlin's Long Game in Africa" by Joshua Meservey.
The analysis concludes that the Kremlin seeks to extract outsized benefits from Africa with the limited means it can deploy. The nature of this engagement will change only when there is meaningful political transformation in Russia.
Fronts, an independent online news source owned by a privately held Czech company, posted on 15 June 2026 a commentary titled "The Egypt-Ethiopia Cold War Is Key to the Horn's Growing Conflicts" by Liam Karr.
The author suggests a "cold war" between Ethiopia and Egypt is a battle for regional dominance, touches nearly every conflict in the Horn of Africa, and is fueling tensions in an already unstable region. Control over Nile waters and landlocked Ethiopia's desire to obtain access to the sea loom large in this cold war.
New Lines Magazine published on 19 June 2025 an article titled "The Tanzania-Zambia Railway Tracks the History of the Cold War" by Kang-Chun Cheng.
This is the account by a foreigner who made the trip on the Tanzania Zambia Railway from Dar es Salaam to New Kapiri Mposhi, a couple of hours outside Lusaka, Zambia. China financed and built the 1,150-mile-long railway during the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s. During the Cold War, it was China's largest foreign aid project in Africa.
The Asia Society Policy Institute posted this week a commentary titled "Avoiding Conflicts and Ensuring U.S.-China Cooperation in Africa: An African Perspective" by Abdeta Beyene, Centre for Dialogue, Research and Cooperation in Addis Ababa.
The author argues that the United States and China have the potential to move beyond competition and instead foster meaningful cooperation in Africa. He suggests a number of ways that China-US collaboration could work to the benefit of Africa.
Comment: The author is correct that there is the potential for US-China cooperation in Africa and a number of years ago there actually was some modest cooperation. The prospect for US-China cooperation in Africa is dependent, however, on the existing Sino-American bilateral relationship, which has been severely strained in recent years. Until there is significant improvement in the China-US bilateral relationship, there is almost no prospect for collaboration in Africa.
The Diplomatic Courier published on 23 April 2025 a commentary titled "In Memoriam: USAID (1948-2025)" by Steven E. Hendrix, former senior USAID official.
USAID died quietly in February 2025 undone by political bureaucratic suffocation and homicidal strategic confusion. What follows the death of USAID will be repackaged into State Department public diplomacy toolkits or crisis response units. Private contractors will fill the void. Multilateral organizations will pick up the slack. But in death USAID leaves behind a legacy of people trained, systems built, and crises averted.
War on the Rocks published on 26 September 2024 an analysis titled "Be Kennedy, Not Kissinger: What Cold War Competition in Guinea and Angola Can Teach Us about U.S. Influence in Western Africa" by Nathan Heath, National Security Innovations, Inc.
Drawing on U.S. Cold War policy, the author argues that the Kennedy administration followed a successful strategy in Guinea while Henry Kissinger pursued an unsuccessful one in Angola.
His lessons for U.S. policy in Africa today are the importance of high-level personal engagement, the need to seize openings when adversaries make mistakes, a coherent strategy, and drawing on help from countries with regional influence.
The New Left Review published on 25 July 2024 a commentary titled "Evil Empires?" by Elizabeth Schmidt.
The author looks at the plusses and minuses of China's engagement in Africa since the end of the Cold War.
The US Institute of Peace published in June 2024 a paper titled "US-China Rivalry in Asia and Africa: Lessons from the Cold War" by Gregg Brazinsky, George Washington University.
This report examines the US-China rivalry in Asia and Africa during the Cold War and today. It offers insights and lessons that can guide US policy makers as they navigate the contemporary competition. Although today's rivalry is not an exact replay of the Cold War, lessons from the earlier competition offer critical insights into how the new contest between China and the United States may evolve.
Foreign Affairs published on 20 September 2023 an article titled "Why the New Cold War Will Split Africa" by Brett L. Carter.
The second cold war is intensifying Africa's democratic recession. Beijing and its junior partner Russia are strengthening Africa's dictatorships and facilitating backsliding in democracies. Although the short-term dynamics favor China and Russia as partners for African countries, the long-term dynamics favor the United States.
The Foreign Policy Research Institute published on 29 August 2023 a commentary titled "Russian Disinformation in Africa: No Door on this Barn" by Dan Whitman.
Russia has a long history of effective disinformation in Africa while Western governments search in vain for a way to counter the lies. The author suggests it is time to support financially certain NGOs and independent citizen organizations that target Russian disinformation.
The New York Times published on 23 August 2023 an article titled "China Tries to Increase Its Clout in Africa Amid Rivalry With the U.S." by David Pierson and Lynsey Chutel.
Chinese President Xi Jinping sees himself as the leader of the developing world in China's effort to offer an alternative to the US-led global order. Africa is an emerging battleground for global influence.
The US Institute of Peace published on 4 May 2023 an analysis titled "Xi Ramps Up Campaign for a Post-Pax Americana Security Order" by Carla Freeman and Alex Stephenson.
Xi Jinping's Global Security Initiative (GSI) aims to promote a vision of an alternative to the U.S.-led international order. Beijing seeks to normalize a role for itself as a source of global security. It is promoting a set of principles for international security that reinforce its preferred norms and priorities, particularly the principle of noninterference and the prioritization of strong state authority to preserve domestic security as the bedrock of a new global security order.
While the GSI has gained traction with some states and Beijing is making a special effort to enlist acceptance in the Global South, including Africa, many countries still see Washington as the world's leading strategic security partner.
The Conversation published on 20 March 2023 a commentary titled "US-China Tensions: How Africa Can Avoid Being Caught in a New Cold War" by John Stremlau, University of the Witwatersrand.
The essay suggests ways that Africa can avoid becoming entangled in US-China global rivalry, while maintaining productive partnerships with both nations.
The New York Times published on 19 March 2023 an article titled "A 'New Cold War' Looms in Africa as U.S. Pushes Against Russian Gains" by Declan Walsh.
The article suggests that heightening great power rivalry in Africa resembles the Cold War when the United States and Soviet Union backed opposing African leaders.
The Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF) blog posted on 2 March 2023 a commentary titled "China's New Global Security Initiative: A Rising Power Spreads Its Wings" by Pascal Abb, senior researcher at PRIF.
China announced its Global Security Initiative (GSI) at the 2022 Boao Forum for Asia, a Chinese-sponsored multilateral security conference. In February 2023, China issued a concept paper that added some detail concerning the initiative. Four ideas highlight the GSI.
First, the GSI's agenda is global in scope.
Second, the GSI is based on a very wide-ranging understanding of security characterized as comprehensive national security.
Third, the GSI establishes a strong connection between peace and development.
Fourth, the GSI makes a clear divide between US and Western normative approaches to security and China's approach, which opposes hegemonism, unilateralism, protectionism, and a Cold War mentality.
The Africa Project published on 8 February 2023 a commentary titled "Africa in the Age of a New 'Cold' War" by W. Gyude Moore, Center for Global Development.
The author concludes that a US policy in Africa that increasingly imposes costs on any cooperation with China will invariably yield less than desired results. It would be a mistake for US law makers to pursue a strategy of compelling compliance with American positions through the brute force of federal legislation and overly weaponizing the centrality of the US in the global economy to punish countries that do not agree.
The US Institute of Peace published on 3 November 2022 an analysis titled "Ukraine's Africa Visit Shows Its Fight against Russia Goes Beyond the Battlefield" by Heather Ashby.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba made in October the country's first high level visit in decades to Africa, making stops in Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Kenya. Ukraine has never been a player in Africa and faces a severe challenge in refuting Russian propaganda. While most African states opposed Russia's invasion of Ukraine, they have been reluctant to condemn Russia for its aggression or to take sides that puts them in the middle of a new Cold War with the US, its Western allies, and Russia.
The Strategic Studies Institute of the US Army War College Press published in July 2022 an edited volume titled Enabling a More Externally Focused and Operational PLA that contains a chapter (#4, pp. 67-87) titled "The People's Liberation Army and Operational Access in the Indian Ocean Region: Geographic Constraints and Lessons from the Cold War" by David Brewster.
The chapter examines challenges faced by the People's Liberation Army in obtaining operational access to the Indian Ocean region. It focuses on how China's strategic imperatives may drive the army's future presence, bearing in mind the geographic constraints particular to the region and the Soviet experience during the Cold War.
The Guardian (Nigeria) published on 14 July 2022 an article titled "Russia-Ukraine Conflict: What It Means for Africa" by Oluwafemi S. Agbelusi.
The author identifies the following reasons why many African countries have failed to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine: skepticism of NATO's motives, growing reliance on Moscow for arms purchases, increasing dependence on Russia for wheat and fertilizer, and a belief that this marks a return to the Cold War.
The US Institute of Peace published on 15 June 2022 an analysis titled "Russia's War in Ukraine Is Taking a Toll on Africa" by Ashish Kumar Sen.
The UN Development Program assistant administrator for Africa said Russia's invasion of Ukraine has put households, communities, and countries across Africa in a "very precarious situation." Disruption of trade in wheat, fertilizer, and steel has had severe consequences for some countries. Downgraded credit ratings have increased borrowing costs. Inflation is on the rise. Development projects are being postponed.
