Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the relationship between India and South Africa, attempting to draw conclusions about whether friendship between states is possible.

Paper long abstract:

Politicians on both sides regularly refer to the special and unique relationship that exists between India and South Africa. Former South African President Thabo Mbeki, for example, spoke of South Africa's "bonds of friendship with India, which is, to us, not only a genuine strategic partner, but also a second home [to] all our people" (Mbeki, 2006).

The notion of friendship is one that has intrigued philosophers for centuries, but has remained largely outside the analytical focus of International Relations (IR). In fact, friendship is generally regarded as essentially alien to international politics. Many IR scholars would have us believe that states all behave indiscriminately similarly towards each other in their quest for survival and national security. Over the past few years, attempts have been made by a handful of scholars to address this shortcoming - a special issue of Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 2007 that focuses on friendship as an important dimension of politics is a case in point.

Building on this work, and based on a constructivist understanding of the importance of ideas and the notion that identity shapes interests, this paper explores the relationship between India and South Africa, focusing in particular on the impact this has on their respective foreign policies. By unpacking the historical relationship between the two countries, it attempts to draw conclusions about whether friendship between states is a reality or a pipedream.

Paper short abstract:

Indian actors provide much-needed investment and capital, but Indo-African connections represent a further diversification of Africa’s international relations. The key issue is how can African leaders seek to leverage newfound Indian interest in Africa.

Paper long abstract:

India's rise in Africa has been largely overlooked, despite the important implications of the growing presence of Indian corporations and a rise in New Delhi's political connections with the continent. Not only are Indian actors providing much-needed investment and capital, but Indo-African connections represent a further diversification of Africa's international relations. Additionally, Indian activity in Africa may be said to constitute a middle ground between China's "hands off" stance and the intrusive conditionalities associated with the West. African governments could use the opportunity of an increased Indian corporate presence in Africa as sources of appropriate technology, skills and advice for economic development. The key issue is how can African leaders seek to leverage newfound Indian investment and interest in Africa so that Africa's place in global trade networks becomes more proactive and beneficial to the continent's citizens.

Paper short abstract:

One of the key ways which India acts in Africa is to develop capacity building and human resources. To help Africa in this respect India has decided to focus on capacity building and human resource power development in Africa.

Paper long abstract:

India's foreign policy in Africa in one key aspect focusses on capacity building and human resource power development in Africa. The main thrust of the two last India -Africa Forum Summits was primarily on this. For this program India has committed $ 1.2 billion to be utilized in the coming years till 2014, the next IASF. Within the coming three to five years India will set up about hundred institutions in Africa for imparting various skills and knowledge to the local communities. As a part of this program the Indian Government is also providing scholarships and research grants to African students and scholars through the Indian Council of Cultural Relations. As a result, today, there are thousands of African students pursuing their educational careers in different Indian universities. This paper is an attempt to critically examine India's policy of equal partnership with Africa focusing on the human resource development and capacity building projects. The paper will also try to gauge response from the African partners to the programs. The fundamental question to be asked is 'Will India's Equal Partnership' slogan with Africa be really successful?

Paper short abstract:

The paper looks at how Japan, one of the major donors of African countries has been re-defining its positions on the African continent in terms of bilateral aid, triangular collaboration and multilateral development projects in a growingly interdependent world of South–South relations.

Paper long abstract:

The paper intends to look at how Japan, one of the major donors of African countries has been re-defining its positions on the African continent in terms of bilateral aid, triangular collaboration and multilateral development projects in a growingly interdependent world of South-South relations. In particular, the discussion focuses on China's expanding presence all across Africa and how that may influence Japanese pragmatic foreign policy towards the continent and Japan's involvement in African development. What are Japan's priorities in light of an increasing Sino-Japanese competition (not only in South-East-Asia) as Japan approaches the fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD V) to be held early June in Yokohama? How does Japan go along with its confident way of inclusive development in African societies when at the same time it is challenged by China and other emerging actors? What are the items on Japan's agenda for a re-intensified Africa policy?

Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the relatively under explored dimension of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as an aspect of investment and political ties between Asia and Africa.

Paper long abstract:

Emergent geo-economic shifts that see Asia being placed centrally in the global economy have major ramifications for the African continent. Indeed, growing trade and investment ties in recent years between African countries and the rising powers from Asia such as China and India have been part of a change in economic trajectory for many states on the continent.

In the scholarly community much attention has been given to the nature and types of investments by the new class of actors from Asia and the consequences they have for Africa's political economy. But there has been little attempt to understand the extent to which these actors might also be subject to expectations about their contributions to development processes on the continent, and how demands for corporate accountability are shaping investment paradigms.

A few very recent events in the international arena suggest that a discourse is arising about the behaviour and impacts of firms from the global South, and that there is an emergent process of institutionalising expectations and norms about these corporations' activities.

This paper focuses on the relatively under explored dimension of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as an aspect of investment and political ties between Asia and Africa.

Paper short abstract:

The paper discusses opportunities and challenges in Zimbabwe's 'Look East' policy as well as strategies needed to help the country reap maximum benefits from its policy, to keep the new investors accountable and to avoid building a new form of dependency on its South-South partners.

Paper long abstract:

The Zimbabwean government has increasingly emphasised expanding bilateral investment and trade relations with the rapidly growing economies of Eastern countries like China, Malaysia and Singapore in what has come to be referred to as the 'Look East' policy since the post-2000 political standoff with the European Union, the United States and Canada and the subsequent imposition of travel and trade restrictions on the country. Zimbabwe's 'Look East' policy has focused on the strengthening of economic relations with China through increased Chinese capital and trade investments in the key sectors of mining, agriculture and infrastructural development.

This paper discusses opportunities and challenges in the Zimbabwean government's 'Look East' policy, and argues that Zimbabwe has not fully benefitted from its new economic relationships because it has not strategically thought-through its policy. It argues that the global financial crisis has weakened established global economic systems and created a window of opportunity for developing countries like Zimbabwe that have diverse resources to deploy economic policies which will ensure the levelling of the economic playing field through strategic leveraging. The East-West rivalry over resources and markets has created opportunities for such countries to negotiate better economic deals that can help them to reap maximum benefits from new investment and trade deals. What is required is innovative economic strategies to avoid building a new form of dependency on a new metropolitan and to keep the new investors accountable. The paper suggests strategies to help the country reap maximum benefits from its Look East policy

Paper short abstract:

In implementing an 'East Asian model' of economic and social development Rwanda embraces the help of Korean aid actors from government, civil society and the private sector. This paper, based on field research in Rwanda, analyzes the role of these Korean actors in shaping Rwandan policies and lives.

Paper long abstract:

As Rwanda is now implementing an 'East Asian model' of economic and social development, it has welcomed the help of various Korean aid actors to realize its ambitious development plans. As an emerging power, the South Korean government prioritized Rwanda as one of the CPS (Country Partnership Strategy) countries in Africa and has provided grant aid amount of US$ 12.5 million from 1991.

For Africa the South Korean development experience is said to include useful features -until recently an aid recipient; the central role of the state; its focus on technology and ICTs; its move from authoritarianism to democracy; its relatively egalitarian society. As a result, the Korean government brands and 'sells' this experience through, for example, the Knowledge Sharing Program, focusing on economic growth, technology innovation, leadership, human resources, and efficient government. On the other side of the spectrum Korean civil society groups, international NGOs and faith-based organizations are delivering aid programs, 'sold' in terms of participation, empowerment, local ownership and poverty reduction, stressing the importance of living and closely working with local communities.

This paper, drawing on field research in Rwanda, analyzes the role of various Korean actors from government, civil society and the private sector in shaping the Rwandan development agenda and Rwandan lives. The aim of the research is to explore whether Korean development actors bring valuable new experiences to Africa. Do the various Korean actors have distinctly different approaches? How are African development policies and lives impacted and vice versa?

Paper short abstract:

The importance of African domestic dynamics in Sino-African relations is gaining momentum.For long torn between state,society and the international,Africa responds to China’s advent with a more confident African Way of carrying out int’l relations through assertive negotiation of its role in the world

Paper long abstract:

While China's state-centric pragmatism does not allow for significant challenges to its state apparatus, namely from civil society actors, in the past few years China has increasingly acknowledged the importance of enhancing relations beyond state-to-state level when it comes to its engagement with African countries. However, within this China-led development scenario, it is not clear to what extent Africans are contributing to raising priority concerns. This paper shows that on a continent where formal and informal institutions have been shaped, re-shaped, contested and challenged by external actors, and where the political space is the result of negotiations between the state, society, and the international, African responses to China's assertion of uniqueness, mainly characterized by economic interests and political non-interference, demonstrate how important it has become to avoid the forced application of known concepts to potentially new domestic and international dynamics. In countries where there is a reasonable degree of economic and socio-political freedom, Africans, confronted by lack of conditionalities, may have found new confidence in expressing their views. The research shows that not only socio-political and economic rights and freedoms have become entrenched in contemporary African cultures, but also that they can co-exist, without being in contrast, with the economic development China is helping to unfold. Should domestic pressures manage to emerge with more strength in the coming years, we may witness a further step in the evolution of governmental and societal relationships in Africa, one characterised by a more confident and aware "African way" of carrying out international relations.

Paper short abstract:

The paper is going to examine the actors, mechanism and modality of China's agricultural investment in Africa, and to reveal how China has used agricultural investment in combination with other economic statecrafts, chiefly aid and trade, to achieve its foreign economic and diplomatic goals.

Paper long abstract:

The new millennium has witnessed a high-profile re-encounter and reunion between the African continent and its geographically distant Asian partner, China. Different from their earlier interactions during the Cold War period, the resurgence of the Africa-China ties has been remarkably characterised by its economic orientation, involving cooperation across a wide range of economic areas from resources exploitation, manufacturing, to infrastructure, telecommunication and so on. The bilateral agricultural connectedness, in this sense, has by contrast remained loose and marginal in the past decade particularly in trade and investment terms. However, with the deepening of China's agriculture "going out" as well as the adjustment of China's African policy, there are strong signs of increased focus on the continent's agricultural sector from the Chinese government and it may well become another prioritized area for China's African investment in the near future. In this light, this paper is mainly going to examine the actors, mechanism and modality of China's agricultural investment in Africa at the current stage, and also trying to reveal how China has utilized agricultural investment in combination with other economic statecrafts, chiefly aid and trade, to achieve its foreign economic and diplomatic goals.

Paper short abstract:

This paper provides a comparative account of Brazil’s and China’s agricultural cooperation policies and practices in Africa. It analyses how engagements are perceived and talked about, what drives them and what formal and informal relations are emerging at the level of particular cooperation initiatives.

Paper long abstract:

Mozambique, a country undergoing important transformations driven by the recent discovery of mineral resources, is one of the top destinations of Chinese and Brazilian cooperation and investment in Africa. It therefore makes an interesting case for understanding the nature of 'new' development encounters, as well as analysing commonalities and differences between China and Brazil as 'emerging powers' in international development, often bundled together under the 'BRICS' label. This paper provides a comparative account of the policies and operational modalities characterising Brazilian and Chinese development cooperation. It analyses how the engagements are perceived and talked about, what drives them and what formal and informal relations are emerging at the level of particular cooperation initiatives. The paper draws on three experiences representing a variety of engagements and suggesting the increasingly blurred motivations shaping cooperation encounters: (i) ProSavana, Brazil's current flagship programme in Mozambique, which aims to transform the country's savannah land spreading along the Nacala corridor, drawing on Brazil's own experience in the Cerrado; (ii) the Chinese Agricultural Technology Demonstration Centre (ATDC) in the outskirts of the Mozambican capital; (iii) a private Chinese investment project on rice in the Xai-Xai irrigation scheme, which builds on a technical cooperation initiative. The extent to which observed dynamics on the ground suggest the emergence of similarities or distinctive patterns of cooperation by Brazil or China are discussed, paving the way for further investigation on the BRICS and their engagements in Africa.