Iran War Drives Africa Toward Renewable Energy and China Model

 Foreign Affairs published on 27 July 2026 an article titled "Can Renewables Industrialize Africa? The Iran War Is Driving the Continent Toward Chinese-Backed Green Energy" by Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa, a climate think tank in Kenya.

The war on Iran is accelerating a determination among African countries to reduce their dependence on imported fossil fuels and to turn toward renewable power.  As a result, African countries are now leaning toward the model advanced by China, in which abundant, low-cost electricity from renewables underpins industrialization and economic growth.

In the meantime, the United States is ceding a role in Africa's clean energy transition to China and risks losing diplomatic influence on the continent.  Washington has not grasped Africa's new energy reality. 

Turkey Bets on High-Risk Horn of Africa

 World Politics Review published on 9 April 2026 a commentary titled "Turkey's High-Risk, High-Reward Wager in the Horn of Africa" by Elfadil Ibrahim.  

Turkey is investing billions of dollars in oil and gas development, advanced weaponry, and expanding security cooperation in the Horn of Africa, especially Somalia.  The Horn of Africa is a risky neighborhood facing a number of actual and potential conflicts.

Tigray News Interview on Iran War and Horn of Africa

 Bisrat Kebede of Tigray News interviewed me on 9 March 2026; the title of the 50-minute video is "Iran Conflict: Sparking a Global Conflict." 

The first forty minutes dealt with the on-going war in Iran while the final ten minutes focused on the situation in the Horn of Africa.  I began my remarks on Iran with the caveat that this is not my area of specialization although I try to follow developments in the Middle East as well as the Horn of Africa and Red Sea region.  

Ethiopia's Investment Prospects

The June 2013 issue of African Review of Economics and Finance contains a study titled "Ethiopia's Investment Prospects: A Sectoral Overview" by Henok Assefa, Derk Bienen and Dan Ciuriak.  The three authors are affiliated with consulting companies in Ethiopia, Germany and Canada respectively.

Dire Dawa, Ethiopia. Flickr/UK Dept. for Int'l Dev.

The authors note that Ethiopia is in the midst of a sustained surge that is becoming increasingly broad-based, building on major improvements in educational attainment, improved health outcomes, and infrastructure capacity in terms of access to power, transportation and telecommunications. The study reviews overall economic management and performance indicators and provides a hortizontal overview of the investment framework. It summarizes the investment prospects in several major sectors of the economy in light of Ethiopia's emerging capacities and global developments: agriculture, mining, oil and gas, economic infrastructure, manufacturing, health and tourism.

The study identifies a number of positive features in Ethiopia's macroeconomic performance. These include strong growth based on an increasingly diversified economy, stable non-food price inflation, increasing exports to a diversified range of markets, an improved trade balance, and generally stable economic policies and a solid investor protection framework. The study argues that the two key challenges to sustained economic performance are high and volatile inflation rates and negative real interest rates, which generate diverse macroeconomic management challenges and constrain savings growth needed to fuel investment. The study also expresses concern over Ethiopia's rising exchange rate.