Controlling Anoutbreak

正China lends strong support alongside the international community to counter the Ebola virus The Ebola epidemic in West Africa has killed 5,459 people since its outbreak in Guinea in December 2013.The virus’rapid spread into neighboring countries led the World Health Organization(WHO)to classify it as an international public health emergency on August 8.The three worst-hit countries are Guinea,Liberia and Sierra Leone.     

Realities and Opportunities——Chinese Private Enterprises in Africa

正IN recent years,growing numbers of Chinese enterprises have initiated investment in Africa.From2009 to 2012,China’s direct investment in Africa increased from US$1.44 billion to US$2.52 billion,with an annual growth of 20.5 percent.Over the same period,China’s cumulative direct investment in Africa rose from US$9.33 billion to US$21.23billion.Currently,over 2,000 Chinese     

In Love with Africa

正IN 2013,Chinese President Xi Jinping recounted a story about a Chinese couple’s fondness for Tanzania in East Africa:"There was once a Chinese couple who,fascinated by images of Africa they had seen on the television,chose to go to Tanzania for their honeymoon.They were enchanted by local customs and extraordinary scenery of the wild Serengeti Plains and fell in love with the country.Back home,the young couple posted a record of their journeys on a blog,which received tens of thousands of hits and hundreds of comments.They said,‘We have fallen in love with Africa and our hearts shall never leave this wonderland."This was Li Ling’s story."I have     

LETTERS

正When I was a teen,I saw for the fi rst time a Tang Dynasty clay fi gure of a person with dark skin and curly hair that was obviously not of Chinese ethnicity.Such people were referred to as Kunlun servants(as they worked as domestic help for the aristocracy),but actually came from beyond the mountain range of the same name that traverses Xinjiang and Tibet.Scientists are divided on their origins–Africa,India,Southeast or South Asia.These early migrants traveled to China with foreign diplomats and merchants via the Silk Road,testifying to extensive people-to-people,cultural and economic exchanges between China and the rest of the world more than1,000 years ago,facilitated by the ancient route.     

Oversight Effectiveness and Political Will: Some Lessons from West Africa

The purpose of the present note is to advance two theoretical claims. The first claim proposed is that the impact of the availability of oversight tools and of the most broadly understood legislative capacity (availability of material, technical, financial resources; availability of well-trained staff) on the effectiveness with which legislative oversight is performed is conditional. The second claim put forward, after reviewing a rich body of work on executive–legislative relations and legislative oversight in West Africa, is that, of the various conditions that promote or prevent the effective use of oversight tools and capacity, political will is the single most important. These claims have both theoretical and practical relevance, for if political will is as important as is claimed for the effective performance of the oversight function, then international organisations may have to reconsider their approach to legislative strengthening.     

Third time lucky? Establishing diplomatic relations between Russia and South Africa

Diplomatic relations between Russia and South Africa were established in 1992, before South Africa's transition to democracy was completed. This move was perceived as a betrayal by many in both countries and beyond. For many decades the Soviet Union supported the African National Congress in its fight against the apartheid regime. South Africa's National Party government, in its turn, presented the USSR as the main force behind the ‘total onslaught’ – an all-out war purportedly waged against South Africa by international communism. Yet it was with the National Party government that the Russians established diplomatic relations. This article looks into the reasons for this change of heart in Moscow and Pretoria, discusses the political forces behind the decision to establish diplomatic relations, and analyses the process that led to this event and the results of establishing diplomatic relations the way it happened and at the time it happened for both countries.     

Does fertiliser use improve household welfare? Evidence from Ghana’s cocoa industry

This article analyses welfare impacts of fertiliser adoption using data collected from 838 cocoa farm households in the four key cocoa-producing regions in Ghana. Using propensity score matching (PSM), the study indicates that application of fertiliser leads to significant gains in farm yields, farm income, consumption expenditure, consumption expenditure per capita, and value of productive farm assets. The article concludes that cocoa-specific programmes such as Cocoa High Technology (Cocoa Hi-tech), initiated to intensify the application of improved farm technologies such as fertiliser, should be strengthened through effective and efficient management systems.     

The foreign policy and intervention behaviour of Nigeria and South Africa in Africa: A structural realist analysis

This article assesses the foreign policy and intervention roles of Nigeria and South Africa in Africa, given their status as regional powers, and the regional complexes within which they operate. Drawing references from a plethora of conflicts in which these two states have intervened, this article argues that structural realism, given its emphasis on the material structure of power and the pursuit of relative gains, is useful as a theoretical framework in this assessment. The article makes a contribution to the literature by illustrating the value of structural realism as an international relations (IR) approach within which the intervention behaviour of these two African states can be analysed. The author acknowledges that while structural realism points to the fact that the pursuit of relative gains may be behind the normatively-clad role conceptions of states, foreign policy cannot be reduced to the pursuit of relative power alone.     

Rhetoric and Praxis: Nigeria’s Africa Diplomacy and the Shaping of the African Union

Although Nigeria has always promoted multilateral diplomacy in the African context, the civilian administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo made it a cardinal objective of its Africa policy. Through his foreign policy speeches, President Obasanjo emphasised the readiness of his administration to play a leading role in African continental organisation – the African Union (AU). Using data collected through the secondary and interview methods, and thematic analysis, this study analyses Obasanjo’s diplomatic outing in the AU. While there were some encumbrances (such as the failure on occasion to make wider consultations within the AU framework and the absence of a well coordinated inter-ministerial approach to project Nigeria’s leadership in the AU), the paper contends that the administration’s diplomacy in the AU was successful. This showed in the role the administration played in shaping the structures that currently define the existence of the organisation. The transmutation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to AU, the recalibration of its peace and security architecture, and the funding of the organisation benefited immensely from Nigeria’s diplomacy under President Obasanjo.     

非洲和平与安全建设：南非的区域大国角色及限度*

作为区域大国,南非在非洲安全秩序构建中发挥着重要作用。1994年民主转型后,南非国家身份定位由西方的"白人飞地"转变为"非洲国家","以非洲为中心"成为南非外交政策的战略优先。南非非国大政府秉持新的国家身份认知,不再将非洲国家视为国家安全的威胁,而是命运与共的合作伙伴。南非通过参与解决非洲国家冲突、加强非洲集体安全机制建设、支持非洲冲突后重建与发展进程、推动联合国与非盟加强战略协调与合作、参与多边维和行动等方式参与非洲和平与安全建设,扮演了区域安全公共产品供给者的角色。南非虽然在非洲和平与安全建设的某些领域发挥了独特的引领作用,但经济增长乏力和国力相对下降,使其越来越无法有效应对日趋复杂的非洲安全形势。域外大国和国家集团加大对非洲安全事务的干预力度、其他非洲区域大国的竞争,也对南非在非洲和平与安全建设领域发挥引领作用形成了制约。在新冠肺炎疫情冲击、经济增长陷入衰退和社会矛盾加剧的背景下,南非政府将把更多精力和资源用于解决国内经济和社会发展问题,直接介入非洲冲突解决的意愿和能力会有所下降。南非在参与非洲安全事务过程中将更加惜用自身国内经济军事资源,进一步提升对外交手段、非洲集体安全机制的依靠。