Djibouti: changing influence in the Horn's strategic hub

Change in Djibouti’s economic and strategic options has been driven by four factors: the Ethiopian–Eritrean war of 1998–2000, the impact of Ethiopia's economic transformation and growth upon trade; shifts in US strategy since 9/11, and the upsurge in piracy along the Gulf of Aden and Somali coasts. With the expansion of the US AFRICOM base, the reconfiguration of France's military presence and the establishment of Japanese and other military facilities, Djibouti has become an international maritime and military laboratory where new forms of cooperation are being developed. Djibouti has accelerated plans for regional economic integration. Building on close ties with Ethiopia, existing port upgrades and electricity grid integration will be enhanced by the development of the northern port of Tadjourah. These strategic and economic shifts have yet to be matched by internal political reforms, and growth needs to be linked to strategies for job creation and a renewal of domestic political legitimacy

Franco-Iraqi relations and Fifth Republic foreign policy, 1958-1990

This study analyses the evolution of France's relations with Iraq since 1958. It seeks to understand the motivations behind French government, state and private sector interests in Iraq. This is done in the dual context of France's economic rivalry with other western powers in the Middle East, and the Iraqi state's attempts to follow an independent foreign policy while using its oil revenues to rapidly industrialise and arm itself. The text first charts France's rivalry with Britain in the ex-Ottoman empire and its fears of Anglo-American domination of oil supplies. It then demonstrates that while France's early links with Israel continued under President De Gaulle, by the mid sixties they had been eclipsed by the commercial importance of trade with Arab states. The core text then focuses on France's relationship with Iraq since 1958, the year in which new governments came to power in both states. Despite the 1972 nationalisation of the Iraq Petroleum company, in which France had a 25% stake, French politicians and businessmen nevertheless gained favourable access to oil supplies, greatly increasing their exports of defence and high technology products, including a nuclear reactor, to Iraq during the seventies. The Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) intensified both bilateral trade links and the indebtedness of Iraq to France. By the mid-eighties what become a de-facto alliance generated severe problems for France's middle eastern policies, particularly towards Iran. The central themes of the study are the processes of foreign policy formation in France, and the extent and impact of economic interests underlying policy making. The thesis argues that substantial state ownership in France's oil, defence and aeronautical industries, coupled with the common interests and interpretations of a relatively homogeneous and interconnected corps of businessmen, politicians and civil servants, helps explain the continuity of French policy in the region. This is seen to be true despite the change of government (from Gaullist to Socialist) in France in May 1981

Europe’s multiple security strategies towards Africa

The European Union’s attempts to ‘strategize’ its actions in Africa are frequently contradictory, largely because the formulation of strategy has occurred retrospectively. Strategies have been crafted to encompass a wide range of often pre-existing policy instruments and agencies, each with its own broad range of specific means, goals and ends. This is true for each of the three geographic dimensions - global, continental and regional - for which the EU has now formulated strategies in Africa. Thus a key challenge in examining security strategy in Africa is making sense of what lies beneath this thin spray-on ‘strategy sheen’. Has a semblance of strategic coherence simply been wafted across a myriad of competing European foreign policy objectives, loosely linked to the notion of ‘security’? This chapter argues that relations between the European Union and African states occupy a unique position in Europe’s ambitions to devise a credible ‘strategy’ due to three specific characteristics of EU-Africa relations. The first is that EU-Africa relations have spawned a uniquely dense, yet frequently contradictory, series of strategies The second unique characteristic of EU-Africa security ties arises from the reality that since 2003 Africa has served as an experimental theatre for many of the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) military missions. Thus interventions in several civil wars in Africa have become Europe’s favoured terrain for joint-military experimentation and innovation; what we might term the ‘military laboratory’ characteristic of Brussels’ CSDP. The third characteristic of EU security strategy in Africa is that it is explicitly, repeatedly and insistently presented in Brussels as being the product of a ‘partnership’ of equals with African governments, however implausible that claim may be in reality

The politics of ports in the Horn: War, peace and Red Sea rivalries

How national, regional and international competition over ports is shaping political alliances and enmities across the Red Sea zone

China’s Maritime Silk Road: The Horn of Africa and Red Sea

Book synopsis: Introduced in 2013, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has had a significant impact within Asia and across other regions. This book provides empirical case studies examining the relations between China and the states in specific regional groupings, including South-East Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, the Persian Gulf, the Horn of Africa, and Central/Eastern Europe. At the theoretical level, Buzan and Waever’s work on regional security complexes is used to develop a framework for analyzing the current impact of the BRI and its potential future effects within these regions, while the case studies explore the extent to which different International Relations and International Political Economy theories explain change in these relationships as the regional security environment shifts. The contributors address questions as diverse as the domestic political and economic drivers impacting the level of BRI cooperation; the effects of cooperation with the US; as well as the historical political and economic risk considerations for China in pursuing BRI cooperation; and the motivations of regional responses to the BRI and rivalries and variations in those responses. This book will be of interest to academics working in the fields of Chinese foreign policy, International Relations, International Political Economy, and area studies. Professionals in the corporate world and Governmental practitioners and non-government agencies will also find the contributions useful

China’s maritime silk road and small states: lessons from the case of Djibouti

This article sheds light on the factors shaping China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) in small states through a study of Djibouti and the MSRI. It also analyses the establishment of China’s first overseas military base and thus evaluates the military-security implications of Chinese MSRI ports. Among other things, it shows that we need to conceive the locational value of MSRI participants more richly, that the existence of an authoritarian partner has advantages for China, but does not necessarily drive MSRI activities, and that small MSRI states have agency vis-àvis China. It suggests, too, there is a template of Chinese port development and that it should not be assumed that China is intentionally wielding the ‘debt trap’ to gain equity

Nigerian London: re-mapping space and ethnicity in superdiverse cities

This paper explores the idea of ‘superdiversity’ at the city level through two churches with different approaches to architectural visibility: the hypervisible Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and the invisible Igbo Catholic Church, both in North London, guide our exploration of invisible Nigerian London. Although Nigerians have lived in London for over 200 years, they live beneath the radar of policy and public recognition rather than as a vital and visible element of superdiversity. This paper argues that we can trace the journeys composing Nigerian London in the deep textures of the city thus making it visible, but this involves re-mapping space and ethnicity. It argues that visibility is vital in generating more open forms of urban encounter and, ultimately, citizenship

Modern taxation

Book synopsis: The first three volumes of the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica (vol. 1: A-C, 2003; vol. 2: D-Ha, 2005; vol. 3: He-O, 2007) are now being followed by volume 4, which includes 970 articles ranging alphabetically from O to W. The volume, written in English, comprises ca. 1150 pages and was compiled in cooperation with 280 authors coming from 26 countries. As with the preceding volumes, the geographic scope remains Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia; such regions as Sudan, Kenya, and the Arabian Peninsula are considered as well. The reference work's main focus is the humanities. The topics covered include basic elements of country study with fundamental geographic facts; topics from history, language and literature studies, art and culture, religion and ethnography, as well as aspects of social, political and economic development; and the region's relationships with Near East and the Western countries well into the second half of the 20th century. Key actors of regional history, politics and research are treated in biographic articles. All entries are supplied with bibliographic references with a distinction being made between primary and secondary sources. Illustrations and maps provide additional information where possible. Cross-references place entries in due thematic context. The Encyclopaedia Aethiopica will be completed by volume 5, which will include articles ranging from Y to Z and additional entries, along with overview tables, maps and a general index

France and Iraq: oil, arms and French policy making in the Middle East

Book synopsis: France's opposition to the Iraq war in 2003 was greeted with surprise and outrage by Anglo-American politicians. But as David Styan argues in his penetrating new book, Chirac's stance was consistent with a decades-long reorientation of French foreign policy. Styan dissects the processes by which a country notorious for its suppression of Algerian independence came to cast itself as the anti-imperialist champion of the Arab world. Styan charts France's divergence from the other Western powers in its relations with Iraq, uncovering the interplay between historical relationships, military industrial interests and geopolitics, which gave rise to it. Negotiating these currents are a range of vivid personalities from De Gaulle to Mitterrand

Djibouti: bridging the Gulf of Aden? balancing ports, patronage and military bases between Yemen's war and the Horn

Book synopsis: The Gulf States and the Horn of Africa takes a deep dive into the complexities of power projection, political rivalry and conflict across the Red Sea and beyond. Focusing on the nature of interregional connections between the Gulf and the Horn, it explores the multifaceted nature of relations between states and the two increasingly important subregions. Bringing together scholars working on and in both regions, the book considers strategic competition between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and between the UAE and both Qatar and Turkey, along with other international engagement such as joint anti-piracy operations, counterterrorism cooperation, security assistance, base agreements and economic development. Drawing on a range of subject expertise and field research across case study countries, the volume adds to the sparse literature on the regional and international politics of the Horn of Africa and Red Sea, gleaning specific insights from contemporary reflections across the book. This is essential reading for students and researchers interested in the Horn of Africa and the evolving regional geopolitics of the Gulf