12/02/2026
International relations are profoundly shaped by economic structures that are deeply intertwined with the interests of political, corporate, and security elites. These interests are sustained through a dense architecture of institutions, organizations, formal rules, and informal practices that collectively reproduce asymmetric power relations between advanced economies at the core of the global system and peripheral states in the Global South. Over decades, the governing logics surrounding capital mobility, resource extraction, production, and trade have entrenched structural inequalities, yielding a global economic order that systematically privileges advanced economies while severely constraining the developmental trajectories of Africa and much of the developing world. Far from being accidental, these imbalances are embedded in the very design of global markets and governance frameworks.
Africa’s strategy in a fractured, rivalry-driven world must begin with clear-eyed realism about power, not aspiration alone. The global system is no longer governed primarily by rules, norms, or multilateral goodwill, but by leverage, asymmetry, and selective enforcement. Africa should therefore stop organizing its external relations around expectations of fairness or benevolence and instead around how power is accumulated, exercised, and constrained. This requires treating geopolitics, finance, technology, security, and climate not as separate policy silos but as interlocking arenas in which Africa must deliberately build bargaining strength. Strategy starts with abandoning illusion—about partners, about institutions, and about Africa’s own internal weaknesses—and replacing it with disciplined prioritization.
The question, therefore, is whether Africa is ready to engage in a genuinely collective and strategic manner. Are African countries prepared to subordinate short-term national or sectoral gains to a broader continental interest? Are they willing to pool aspects of sovereignty—particularly in trade, investment, and regulatory frameworks—to negotiate as a bloc, rather than as fragmented
actors vulnerable to external leverage? And, crucially, do African states possess the political maturity, institutional capacity, and disciplined coordination necessary to make such collective action credible?
Read more on the February 2026 edition of the CDRC Digest below: https://cdrcethiopia.com/africas-future-amidst-global-rupture-agency-sovereignty-and-transformation/
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