On 17 June 2026, I represented the Development Watch Center at a Seminar on commemorating 70 years of China-Africa and China-Arab Diplomatic Relations: Jointly Building a Community with a Shared Future. Organised by the government of China, this was a high-level gathering reflecting on the diplomacy that has aged seven decades, and also charting a […]

Many keeping a close eye on the influence of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on global affairs will know about the moment in 2023 when President Xi Jinping first presented the Global Civilization Initiative during a keynote address to the Communist Party of China in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-Level Meeting. A similar […]

Historical imagery is filled with cinematic circumstances around the surrender of a global power by a contending new hegemon. Great Britain became the foremost global empire following the Napoleonic Wars, having obtained naval supremacy and colonial prominence over France. Having ruled from 1878 to 1918, the Ottoman Empire surrendered to European powers at the Berlin […]

Traditionally, great powers have heavily relied on their military and more recently economic power to expand their global influence. This doctrine, is a cornerstone of realism – a theory for which one of the leading advocates Morgenthau equated “the national interest with the acquisition and use of [military and economic] power. As a result, the […]

At the recent celebration of Africa Day on 25th May, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hosted African diplomats and envoys in Moscow. Beyond its ceremonial trappings, this meeting carried weight worth the thought of every keen foreign affairs mind. At the event, Lavrov delivered a message on behalf of President Vladimir Putin directed to […]

On the night of Tuesday, May 19th, the President of the Russian Federation arrived in Beijing, China for a remarkable two days state visit (together with President Xi Jinping, the Eastern European leader signed twenty agreements). At the same time, given that the said mission followed that of President Trump merely four days after, the […]