China-Africa Relations in the New Era of Great Power Competition
Abstract
As the logic of great power competition casts its shadow over Africa, questions arise as to its impact on the continent's developmental prospects and security imperatives.
This presentation will examine how the changing dynamics between China and the West have influenced the existing structure of China-Africa relations and contributed to policy changes or even generated new initiatives.
Speaker
Chris Alden - London School of Economics and Political Science Foreign Policy Analysis
Bio
Professor Chris Alden teaches International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and is Director of LSE IDEAS, recognised as one of the world’s top university-based think tanks. He is Senior Research Associate with South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) and is a visiting professor at PSIA/Sciences Po in Paris. Professor Alden was awarded a PhD in Law and Diplomacy at the Fletcher School (Tufts/Harvard, 1993) and taught at the University of the Witwatersrand (1990-2000). He worked as a researcher at the Harvard Institute for International Development (1986-1989). Professor Alden has conducted consultancies with the World Bank, GTZ/GIZ, Morgan-Stanley, BHP, Gateway House, FCDO, CLSA, US Institute of Peace, USAID, NUPI, Norwegian Foreign Ministry, JETRO/IDE-Japan, UNDP, Save the Children, and Oxfam International, amongst others.
He is author/co-author of numerous books, including Apartheid’s Last Stand – the Rise and Fall of the South African Security State (Palgrave 1996), Mozambique and the Construction of the New African State (Palgrave 2003), South Africa’s Post-Apartheid Foreign Policy (Adelphi Paper IISS 2003), China in Africa (Zed 2007), Land, Liberation and Compromise in Southern Africa (Palgrave/Macmillan 2009), The South and World Politics (Palgrave 2010), Foreign Policy Analysis – New Approaches 2nd edition (Routledge 2017), and China and Latin America – Development, Agency and Geopolitics (Bloomsbury 2023). Professor Alden is the co-editor of China Returns to Africa (Hurst 2008), China and Africa – Building Peace and Security Cooperation on the Continent (Palgrave 2017), New Directions in Africa-China Studies (Routledge 2019) as well as having written numerous articles in internationally recognised journals over the last twenty-five years. Professor Alden has held fellowships at Cambridge University, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo; Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto; Ecole Normale Superieure (Cachan), Paris; CERI, Paris; and University of Pretoria.
Regarding public service, Professor Alden is a frequent contributor to the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office in-house seminars, the Integrated Review for UK Ministry of Defence, and UK parliamentary select committees. He has addressed the EU parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, contributed to the EU’s Development Commission report (2009), trained EU’s External Action Service personnel (2016-2019) as well as diplomats from the UK, South Africa, Armenia, Chile and Myanmar. Professor Alden has contributed to the news media, including The Economist, The Financial Times, The New York Times, CNN, SkyTV, China Daily, AFP, Reuters and The Guardian, as well as social media such as The Conversation and Project Syndicate.