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.
The Africa Center for Strategic Studies published on 4 August 2025 a paper titled "Africa as a Testing Ground for China's Global Security Initiative" by Paul Nantulya.
China's Global Security Initiative (GSI) is slowly taking on concrete structure. GSI principles are designed to appeal to the Global South and are being integrated into the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. African governments also see GSI as another source of security assistance.
Foreign Affairs published on 9 July 2024 an article titled "The Right Way for America to Counter Russia in Africa" by Frederic Wehrey and Andrew S. Weiss, both with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Washington should continue helping African states make progress with good governance, economic opportunities, and security for their citizens. In the case of those countries that have opted for Russian security assistance, the best response may be to step back and allow Russia's appeal to fade on its own. Moscow is often its own worst enemy.
The Stimson Center published on 20 March 2023 an analysis titled "US Security Assistance to Somalia" by Elias Yousif.
Between 2010 and 2020, the United States provided more than $500 million in direct security assistance to Somali forces and spent $2.5 billion on security assistance for the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). Despite recent Somali government successes on the battlefield, the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab organization has proven to be both adaptable and resilient.
The RAND Corporation has just published a major report titled "Security Cooperation in a Strategic Competition." It looks at the current role of security cooperation as a tool in the emerging strategic competition among the US, Russia, and China. It contains chapters on China and Russia's global security activities. While Africa does not loom large in the report, there is useful information on security cooperation with the continent.
The Air Force Magazine published on 18 July 2022 an article titled "African Coups Give China and Russia an Edge in Restive Sahel" by Abraham Mahshie.
Restrictions following coups d'etat on US security cooperation aimed at combatting terrorism in the Sahel region are giving an edge to China and Russia. These countries turn to China and Russia when the US is not responsive to their security requests.
U.S. Representatives Tom Malinowski and Young Kim issue press release on 8 February 2022 concerning a bill to end humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a bipartisan bill that requires the Biden administration to take additional measures to seek an end to the civil war in Ethiopia. The bill, which must still be approved by the entire House and the Senate, would require the State Department to develop a plan for supporting democracy and human rights in Ethiopia, authorize the President to impose sanctions on individuals who undermine negotiations to end the conflict, suspend all security assistance to the government of Ethiopia, and oppose loans or other financial assistance from international agencies like the World Bank and IMF to the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee introduced bipartisan legislation on 4 November 2021 called the Ethiopia Peace and Democracy Promotion Act of 2021.
The legislation mandates the imposition of targeted sanctions against individual actors who are found to undermine attempts to resolve, who profit from, or who provide material support to any entity that is party to the civil war. It is designed to punish actors who continue to fuel violence, violate human rights, and undermine a democratic, peaceful, and unified Ethiopia.
The text of this comprehensive bill is aimed at Eritrea as well as Ethiopia.
The National Defense University just released a book titled The PLA Beyond Borders: Chinese Military Operations in Regional and Global Context. It is available on line open access. The book contains a comprehensive chapter titled "China's Security Assistance in Global Competition: The Case of Africa" by Jonah Victor, senior analyst at the U.S. Department of Defense and adjunct associate professor at Georgetown University.
Foreign Policy posted on 21 May 2021 an article titled "Biden Administration Plans Visa Restrictions on Ethiopian Officials Over Tigray" by Robbie Gramer.
The Biden administration is planning to target Ethiopian and Eritrean officials with visa restrictions as part of an effort to encourage change in policy in Tigray Region.
