Ethiopia Insight published on 5 January 2026 a commentary titled "Cultural Roots of Ethiopia's Political Failure" by Nagessa Dube, a lawyer in Seattle, Washington.
The author argues that Ethiopia's long-standing governance problems stem from deep cultural patterns: silence, secrecy, conformity, authoritarian reflexes, and unquestioned group loyalty. Foreign analysts often misunderstand Ethiopian politics because they overlook these cultural dynamics.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies published on 18 November 2024 a commentary titled "China's Smart Cities in Africa: Should the United States Be Concerned?" by Jason Warner and Toyasi Alibade.
Chinese surveillance technology is in wide use in African cities governed in some cases by authoritarian regimes, which raises questions about its abuse. Nine African countries currently use Chinese-backed "smart city" surveillance systems.
Megatrends Afrika published in October 2024 a policy brief titled "Pragmatic, Strategic and Wide-Reaching: The CCP's Party Diplomacy in Africa" by Christine Hackenesch and Julia Bader.
The policy brief analyses recent patterns and motives of China's party diplomacy in Africa. It finds that the CCP maintains close ties with the main ruling parties in southern Africa and in some countries in East Africa, while engaging with a broad range of parties in countries in North Africa. Beijing's party diplomacy in Africa seeks to promote China's core foreign policy interests, advance an alternative narrative on global China, and normalize China's authoritarian system.
Ethiopia Insight published on 13 September 2024 a commentary titled "Ethiopia's Endless Constitutional Chasm and Authoritarian Abyss" by Leul Estifanos, freelance court reporter.
There seems to be a consensus that Ethiopia needs to make changes in its 1995 constitution, but there is no consensus on what the final document should look like. Finding a consensus is even more difficult in Ethiopia's current political environment. The situation today is exacerbated because even the existing constitution is not being fully implemented.
The African Center for Strategic Studies published on 29 July 2024 an analysis titled "China Escalates Its Political Party Training in Africa" by Paul Nantulya.
The Communist Party of China is giving renewed attention in the post-COVID era to political training in Africa. The training emphasizes party supremacy over the state and government. The training has the potential to entrench single, dominant party models in Africa.
The Atlantic Council published on 13 June 2024 an analysis titled "A Global South with Chinese Characteristics" by Niva Yau.
China has embarked on a steadily expanding mission to promote its political system alongside its economic engagement across the Global South. Even as China's economic growth has slowed significantly and its political system has grown more repressive under Xi Jinping, the number of countries welcoming Chinese governance lessons continues to grow, enhancing Beijing's global influence. This has significant implications for the future of democracy, the protection of individual rights, and the nature of the global order.
One way that Beijing promotes authoritarian governance is through training programs for foreign government officials on Chinese governance practices. This analysis investigates a new dataset of Chinese government files on such training, revealing how China uses these sessions to directly promote ideas and practices that marry economics and politics to make a case for its authoritarian capitalism model. The analysis outlines the content Beijing teaches foreign officials and the anticipated benefits to Beijing from these programs. It also explains how these initiatives fit into China's broader ambitions to undermine the liberal democratic norms that currently underpin the global order.
The end of Politico's "China Watcher" column dated 19 October 2023 by Phelim Kine includes a nice plug under "One Book, Three Questions" for our new book titled "China's Relations with Africa: A New Era of Strategic Engagement" published by Columbia University Press.
Axios filed on 20 August 2023 a story titled "In Tanzania, Beijing Is Running a Training School for Authoritarianism" by Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian.
Beijing established in Tanzania the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School, a partnership between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the ruling political parties of Tanzania, Mozambique, Namibia, Angola, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
At the school, the CPC teaches how it fuses the ruling political party and the state making a clear departure from Beijing's previous, more subtle attempts to peddle influence on the international stage. Economics takes a back seat to political training. The school's program contradicts CPC assertions that Beijing isn't exporting its authoritarian model for governing.
Israel Hayom published on 2 July 2023 an article titled "It's Business as Usual for Wagner Group in Africa, Despite Russian Turbulence" by David Baron.
The estimated 6,000 Wagner Group forces in Africa have continued their operations in spite of the upheaval facing the organization in Russia. The article includes an interview with Joseph Siegle, the director of research at the U.S. National Defense University. Siegle argues that Vladimir Putin can allow Yevgeniy Prigozhin to continue his programs in Africa, thereby generating income and influence for Russia, or try to take over the operations and likely lose the influence.
