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Paper short abstract

This paper confronts the 'New Cold War' (NCW) discourse by drawing attention to the European Union (EU) and China's complementarities (EU-CC) in Africa. To do this, it interrogates existing EU-CC arguments, evolution, exemplars, prospects, challenges, and implications for the NCW.

Paper long abstract

European Union (EU) and Chinese complementarities ––used here to mean the extent of collaboration and linkages between the two powers–– limits the ‘New Cold War’ (NCW) and confronts adversarial academic and policy postulations that have prioritised a competitive and sometimes zero-sum discourse. Despite emerging academic interests in EU-China complementarities (hereafter EU-CC) in Africa in the last 15 years, little or no effort has been made to systematically review its existing arguments. This paper contributes to the existing discourse by shedding some light on three dimensions of EU-CC as it relates to: (i) arguments and evolution, (ii) exemplars, prospects and challenges, and (iii) implications for the NCW. Specifically, I will engage three key questions: (i) What are the main arguments for EU-CC in Africa and how have they evolved in the last 15 years? (ii) What are the exemplars, prospects, and challenges of EU-CC in Africa? (iii) What are the implications of EU-CC for Africa, China, EU, and other relevant actors in the EU-CC universe? This paper is an aspect of a broader research agenda on EU-CC in Africa’s energy transition.