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1. Brexit, the EU and Strategic Uncertainties: Short, Medium and Long Term Implications for Sub-Saharan Africa

Author:
Yoslán Silverio González
Publication Date:
06-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Institution:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Abstract:
The European Union (EU) has been a fundamental actor in the economic and political relations with the African countries. EU’s foreign policy towards Africa has been particularly affected by French and British colonial past. The history of the economic relations between the European Economic Community (EEC) and the African continent has been shaped by a series of multilateral agreements – the Yaoundé Conventions, adopted under French influence, and the Lomé Conventions, starting on 1975 –, and, with the entry of the UK in the EEC (1973), the community had to renegotiate the ancient commercial agreements to incorporate the former British territories as “beneficiaries” of these agreements
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Treaties and Agreements, European Union, Economy, Brexit, and Trade
Political Geography:
Britain, Africa, and Europe

2. The Gulf of GuineA: The Future African Persian Gulf?

Author:
Yoslán Silverio González
Publication Date:
06-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Institution:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Abstract:
Different African regions have not stopped being at the epicenter of games and influences from capitalist powers, mainly from former European metropolises, such as France, and the United States, due to the fact that each one of them has significant importance in the international relations’ context, because of either their geographic position or their natural resources2 . In the last decades, guaranteeing energy supply has become a matter of natural security for all countries, especially for those with high levels of consumption and industrial development. Projections for the next years show that there will not be viable alternatives to replace hydrocarbons as the main energy source. Therefore, oil will continue to be the center of the whole industrial productive base. As consumption increases and supply decreases, competition for its control will grow. Here is where the Sub-Saharan African oil producing regions start to play a strategic role. The African continent has always been subject to developed capitalist countries’ greed, whose oil companies, supported by their governments, continue to seek licenses to explore crude oil and gas reserves, in what has been called the new scramble for Africa. Countries such as the United Kingdom and Norway have found in Africa an alternative to the deterioration of their supply zones in the North Sea. The US has managed to take France’s place in controlling this sector, and Chinese companies have increased their presence in the oil and gas business, which is “worrying” US and European businesspersons, who perceive China’s advances as a menace to their economic hegemony. For these reasons, they tend to present China as a new “imperialism”, much more contaminating and exploitative, an ill-intended focus that looks to hide what European and US capitalism have done for decades in the continent.
Topic:
Natural Resources, Geopolitics, and Trade
Political Geography:
Africa, Guinea, and Persian Gulf