The EU and China in African Authoritarian Regimes

Political science; EU; China; Africa; Rwanda; Ethiopia; Angola; Survival strategy; Governance; Reform; Economic dependence; Paul Kagame; 2005 Ethiopian general election; African oil revenues; Authoritarian regimes; Party regime

Development policy under fire? The politicization of European external relations

In the past few years decision‐making processes and the normative underpinnings of EU external relations have become subject to intense debate in the European institutions, member states and the wider public. Previous research suggests that there is variation in the extent to which individual domains of EU external relations are politicized and contested. This special issue aims to theorize further and investigate empirically this, using the example of European development policy and its relations with other external policies. We introduce two new mechanisms that drive politicization dynamics. We argue that politicization can be diffused horizontally from one policy field to another, which we call horizontal politicization. We also investigate how the politicization of EU external policies in third countries occurs and influences politicization dynamics in the EU, which we call outside‐in politicization. The introduction to the special issue presents our theoretical approach and summarizes the key findings from the special issue

Beyond rich and poor: Identifying global development constellations

Motivation: The COVID‐19 pandemic is the most recent instance of global development problems being liable to occur anywhere, challenging the assumption of a world divided into "developed" and "developing" countries. Recent scholarship has increasingly opted for the term "global development" to capture this changing geography of development problems. Purpose: Our article contributes to these debates by proposing a novel empirical approach to localize global development problems in country contexts worldwide. Methods and approach: Our approach rests on a universal understanding of "development." We identify countries that are particularly relevant for global problem‐solving and consider not only the problem dimension but also countries' capacities to address these problems. Findings: Our results show that countries with the most severe combinations of problems cover a range as broad as Afghanistan, Nigeria, and the United States. Two thirds of countries with above‐average contributions to global problems are governed by authoritarian regimes. We also find that middle income countries, whether lower‐middle or upper‐middle as defined by the World Bank, have little in common apart from their income level. Policy implications: Our analysis shows that traditional development concepts of a binary world order and of foreign aid as financial transfer to remedy imbalances are not enough to address constellations of global problems and capacity that have long evolved beyond rich and poor

Competing for development : the European Union and China in Ethiopia

CCS discussion papers should contribute to the academic debate on China’s global rise and the consequences thereof for African development. We do therefore explicitly invite scholars from Africa, China, or elsewhere, to use this format for advanced papers that are ready for an initial publication, not least to obtain input from other colleagues in the field. Discussion papers should thus be seen as work in progress, exposed to (and ideally stimulating) policy-relevant discussion based on academic standards. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author.The original publication is available at http://www.sun.ac.za/ccsBibliographyIn European development policy circles, China’s Africa policy has spurred a lively debate about the motives, instruments and effects thereof. The paper assesses the ‘competitive pressure’ that China’s growing presence in Africa exerts on the European development policy regime, and on European development policy to Ethiopia. Ethiopia is one of the most important countries in Chinese, as well as European, cooperation with Africa. For the EU, Ethiopia is the largest aid recipient in Africa. For China, in contrast, Ethiopia is not primarily an aid recipient but an important economic and political ally in its new Africa policy. The paper argues that Chinese financial flows to Ethiopia are largely complementary to European aid, providing the Ethiopian government with resources much needed to implement its ambitious development strategy. However, China has emerged also as an alternative partner to the Ethiopian government, providing alternative development templates and an alternative approach to discuss about economic and political reforms. Chinese engagement in Ethiopia thereby sheds light on the gap between European rhetoric and policy practice, pressuring the EU to make more efforts to reform its development policy system.PDF Versio

The EU and China in African Authoritarian Regimes: Domestic Politics and Governance Reforms

This open access book analyses the domestic politics of African dominant party regimes, most notably African governments’ survival strategies, to explain their variance of opinions and responses towards the reforming policies of the EU. The author discredits the widespread assumption that the growing presence of China in Africa has made the EU’s task of supporting governance reforms difficult, positing that the EU’s good governance strategies resonate better with the survival strategies of governments in some dominant party regimes more so than others, regardless of Chinese involvement. Hackenesch studies three African nations – Angola, Ethiopia and Rwanda – which all began engaging with the EU on governance reforms in the early 2000s. She argues that other factors generally identified in the literature, such as the EU’s good governance strategies or economic dependence of the target country on the EU, have set additional incentives for African governments to not engage on governance reforms

Aid Donor Meets Strategic Partner? The European Union’s and China’s Relations with Ethiopia

The motives, instruments and effects of China’s Africa policy have spurred a lively debate in European development policy circles. This paper assesses the “competitive pressure” that China’s growing presence in Africa exerts on the European development policy regime. Drawing on a large number of interviews conducted in China, Ethiopia and Europe between 2008 and 2011, the paper analyses Ethiopia as a case study. Ethiopia has emerged as one of the most important countries in Chinese as well as European cooperation with Africa. Yet, Chinese and European policies toward Ethiopia differ greatly. The EU mainly engages Ethiopia as an aid recipient, whereas China has developed a comprehensive political and economic partnership with the East African state. China has thereby become an alternative partner to the Ethiopian government, a development that both sheds light on the gap between European rhetoric and policy practice and puts pressure on the EU to make more efforts to reform its development policy system