Africa In the Face of Geopolitical Recompositions, Governance Challenges, And New Security Dynamics: Rethinking the Continent’s Trajectories
Year: 2026
Type: editorial
Abstract: Africa is going through a historical period that is less characterized by a succession of crises than by a profound transformation of the power relations that shape the continent and its international environment. The reconfigurations of the world order, the assertion of new powers, the diversification of external partnerships, the weakening of certain multilateral frameworks, governance crises, and the mutation of security threats now require us to go beyond the analytical framework. who have long described Africa mainly as a peripheral space subject to the strategies of foreign powers. It is therefore necessary to approach Africa as a space of competition, but also as a set of actors with their own initiative capacities and strategies. In this perspective, the current recompositions cannot be interpreted either as a simple displacement of external dependencies or as the mechanical advent of an African autonomy. Rather, they constitute a space for the renegotiation of power relationships, whose effects vary according to the political, institutional, economic, and security capacities of African states and organizations. This perspective is in line with the analysis proposed by Sonia Le Gouriellec in Geopolitics of Africa (Le Gouriellec, 2026), which suggests seeing the continent in its diversity rather than as a homogeneous or marginal whole of the international system. Africa plays an increasing role in certain reconfigurations of trade and global political, economic and strategic balances, which implies that its internal dynamics contribute to the transformation of international relations. This evolution leads us to go beyond the image of an Africa mainly apprehended from the angle of external dependence, to study the strategies of its states, their room for maneuver and their negotiation capacities in an increasingly competitive international environment. This evolution can also be seen through the concept of an African agency, which emphasizes the ability of African actors to exercise leeway, negotiate their external relations, and influence, to varying degrees, the international configurations in which they fit (Brown & Harman, 2013). However, this capacity for action remains differentiated according to the states, institutions and contexts, and cannot be automatically equated with a fully acquired strategic autonomy.
Author: Mady Ibrahim Kanté
Institution: Université Laval
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7224764427