List 25 published on 11 July 2026 an analysis titled "Navies Protect Cable Ships from Pirate Skiffs: The Full Story" by Anant Gupta.
Fiber-optic cable laying ships in the Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Guinea, and waters off Somalia are especially vulnerable to pirate attacks. This analysis explains why they are vulnerable and efforts to protect them as they perform their vital functions.
The China-Africa Security Radar published on 17 May 2026 a commentary titled "Chinese Clean Tech Is Raising Alarm Bells in the West--Should Africa Be Worried Too?"
Western governments are raising concerns about the impact of Chinese-supplied digitally connected electric vehicles and solar power inverters connected to the internet. They have the potential to harvest large amounts of geospatial and personal data.
The United States and certain European countries are banning some of this Chinese equipment. China counters that these are excuses to protect less competitive Western products. These Chinese products are being woven even more deeply into African markets and raise questions about data protection.
The Robert Lansing Institute published on 11 May 2026 an analysis titled "Russia's Setback in Mali: Intelligence Failures, Strategic Limits, and the Failure of Moscow's Africa Project."
Russia's Africa Corps retreat from Kidal in Mali exposed Moscow's operational fragility and weakened the mythology of Russia's expeditionary effectiveness. Russia relied too heavily on coercion without sufficient understanding of local ethnic, tribal, and political realities.
Mali demonstrates Russia may struggle to control large territories, defeat insurgencies, or maintain durable legitimacy. It exposed the limits of Russia's expeditionary warfare model.
Aljazeera published on 7 March 2026 an article titled "Why Yemen's Houthis Are Staying Out of Israel-US Fight with Iran--for Now."
Since the beginning of Operation Epic Fury, Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis have limited their support for Tehran to rhetoric and a mass protest denouncing the US-Israeli strikes. The Houthis seem to fear Israel intelligence and the possibility of leadership decapitation. At the same time, the Houthi leader, Abdel-Malik al-Houthi, said his group's engagement in the war could occur at any moment depending on developments.
The International Crisis Group posted on 19 February 2026 a 27-minute podcast titled "Israel, Somaliland and the Horn" with Alan Boswell and Asher Lubotzky, Israel-Africa Relations Institute.
Lubotzky commented that Israel is trying to improve relations across Africa. In eastern Africa, its closest ties are with Ethiopia. It also has good relations with South Sudan and Kenya. They are up and down with Uganda and not so good with Eritrea. Israel is making every effort to remain out of the Sudan conflict.
Israel's recognition of Somaliland was based primarily on its goal to develop a strategic link with a territory that is close to the Houthis in Yemen. The Houthi issue drove Israel to recognize Somaliland where it can improve its intelligence operations at the southern end of the Red Sea and into Yemen. The decision had little or nothing to do, as is often alleged, with moving Gazans to Somaliland or the Ethiopia-Egyptian dispute.
Israel recognizes that Somaliland took a chance by recognizing Israel, which could result in Houthi attacks aimed at Somaliland.
South Africa's Daily Maverick published on 8 February 2026 an article titled "New Assistant Secretary of State for Africa: Manager of Trump Policies for the Continent He Hates?" by J. Brooks Spector.
Frank W. Garcia is the Trump administration nominee to be the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. A Congressional staffer focusing on intelligence issues, he has limited exposure to Africa. He is now a senior adviser to the House of Representatives Select Committee on Intelligence. He replaces Nick Checker, a former CIA analyst who had the title of senior bureau officer for African affairs but not assistant secretary.
Modern Diplomacy published on 14 February 2026 a commentary titled "Egypt's Shadow War: Partnering with China to Curb Mossad's Influence Across Africa" by Nadia Helmy, Beni Suef University Egypt.
The author states that Egypt and China are working together to counter Israeli intelligence activities, specifically those of Mossad, in Africa. Egypt is particularly concerned with Mossad activities in Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Uganda, Rwanda, and Eritrea. China has reportedly provided Egypt with advanced radar and electronic warfare systems.
Foreign Affairs published on 7 April 2025 a commentary titled "America Needs a Real Indian Ocean Strategy" by Arzan Tarapore, Stanford University.
Chinese submarine activity will soon surpass India's ability to counter it in the Indian Ocean and India is ill equipped to offset China's growing naval presence. India's contributions to regional security are significant, but they will be dwarfed by what it will take to counter China's increasing naval capacity.
The author calls on the United States to craft a comprehensive strategy for the Indian Ocean because within a decade an expanding Chinese naval presence will be able to imperil global shipping lanes, extract more resources from countries in the region, and project force far beyond its current ability. The focus of this US strategy should be building collective military power.
The New York Times published on 6 March 2025 an article titled "State Dept. Plans to Close Diplomatic Missions and Fire Employees" by Edward Wong and Mark Mazzetti.
The State Department has been hemorrhaging senior staff since the beginning of this year. The Trump administration is looking to cut staffing by as much as 20 percent. A dozen consulates, mostly in Western Europe, are on the chopping block. Locally hired staff may be hit especially hard by the firings. Embassies are also reportedly under discussion for closure.
Foreign Policy published on 6 September 2024 an essay titled "The Many Faces of Abiy Ahmed" by Tom Gardner, Africa correspondent for The Economist.
This essay is adapted from the book published in 2024 and titled The Abiy Project: God, Power and War in the New Ethiopia by Tom Gardner. The author argues there are many Abiy Ahmeds: the aspiring emperor longing for a glorious past, a forward-looking modernizer, a Pentecostal Putin both pragmatic and Machiavellian, a Christian nationalist, and a corporate CEO. Abiy is convinced he was sent by God to rule Ethiopia.
The Hill published on 2 July 2024 a commentary titled "Ukraine Is Taking the Fight to Russia in Africa, Syria" by David Kirichenko.
The article focuses on Ukrainian intelligence and training support for the government of Sudan to combat Russia's Wagner Group and for rebels in Syria to counter Russian forces supporting the government of Syria.
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.
Radio Free Europe published on 7 December 2023 an article titled "With Wagner in Disarray, A Russian Diplomat with Spy Links Surfaces in the Central African Republic" by Mark Krutov, Sergei Dobrynin, and Maja Zivanovic.
A former Kremlin envoy to the European Union whom European diplomats link to Russian intelligence has been dispatched to the Central African Republic to oversee coordination between the Wagner mercenary group and local security forces.
Nigeria's Ministry of Defense posted on 23 November 2023 an article titled "FG to Collaborate with China on Technology Transfer, Intelligence Sharing."
Following a meeting with the Chinese ambassador in Abuja, Nigeria's minister of defense said the government would collaborate with China in technology transfer, intelligence sharing, and military training.
Foreign Policy published on 20 September 2023 a commentary titled "How China Uses Shipping for Surveillance and Control" by Elaine Dezenski and David Rader, both with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
The Chinese government has spent the past three decades trying to gain access and influence in the open seas, strategic shipping lanes, and foreign ports around the globe. China owns, co-owns, or operates some 96 foreign ports. China has introduced massive and little-understood information gathering infrastructure at critical ports worldwide. Chinese laws require that all Chinese companies operating overseas--both private and state-owned--gather and report intelligence on foreign entities to the Chinese government.
Chinese commercial ports routinely host Chinese military vessels and could act as critical resupply points or repair facilities during a conflict. To this end, China is increasingly pursuing civilian-military interoperability in maritime infrastructure and other domains.
Reuters published on 27 April 2023 an article titled "White House Urges Americans to Leave Sudan Within Next 24 to 48 Hours."
Over concern that a cease fire in Sudan will not hold, the White House recommended that American citizens leave Sudan in the next 24 to 48 hours. The United States is not organizing a massive evacuation but is deploying surveillance and reconnaissance assets over Sudan and naval vessels off of Sudan's Red Sea coast.
In an important speech in London on 11 October 2022 before the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, Sir Jeremy Fleming, Director of Government Communications Headquarters (the UK's intelligence, cyber, and security agency) warned that China is working hard to exploit information covertly in countries big and small.
China is deliberately and patiently trying to gain strategic advantage by shaping the world's technology ecosystems. Technology has become not just an area for opportunity, for competition and for collaboration, it's become a battleground for control, values and influence.
Fleming argued that "we must conclude that Beijing is using all of the levers to challenge the international post-war consensus on economics and technology. And that it intends to rewrite the rules of international security, both close to home and further afield, in ways frankly that none of us have ever faced before." The Communist Party of China is using "its resources to implement draconian national security laws, a surveillance culture, and an increasingly aggressive military." Fleming added that "in a future crisis, Beijing could exploit information covertly. One only needs to look at how China has already sought to do just this, leveraging its influence over many smaller nations in votes over technology, ethics and foreign policy."
Fleming concluded that "this isn't a call to exclude or marginalize China -- even if we could. It's a call for a China to recognize that it's to its advantage to play responsibly inside the global system. If it does so it can help to co-create the rules of tomorrow. But if it chooses not to. To play a disruptive role in international security, technology and markets, then that will come at a cost too."
The Heritage Institute published in April 2021 a report titled "Structural Impediments to Reviving Somalia's Security Forces."
The report argues that the creation of a capable Somali security force is hampered by the irreconcilability of Somalia's political leaders, nepotism, inadequate funding, potency of al-Shabaab, and external actors with different agendas.
The New York Times published on 15 February 2021 an article titled "In a Dangerous Game of Cat and Mouse, Iran Eyes New Targets in Africa" by Declan Walsh, Eric Schmitt, Simon Marks, and Ronen Bergman.
Ethiopia's intelligence agency recently uncovered a cell of 15 people it said were casing the embassy of the United Arab Emirates, along with a cache of weapons and explosives. Ethiopia said it foiled the attack, but did not indicate who was behind it. Now US and Israeli officials say the operation was the work of Iran.
