Africa, new coliseum for global tussle

French President Emmanuel Macron and his aides in Elysee Palace are seriously concerned about the waning influence of Paris in its former colonies in the African continent. After four coups and ouster of pro-French rulers in former French colonies, Macron’s aides are currently mulling over multiple strategies to reinforce France political and economic dominance in African capitals. Several buzzwords and fascinating terminology such as democratisation of societies, youth empowerment, preservation of human rights, revival of economic co-operation, revitalization of public diplomacy and community engagement are being coined to engage African leaders, who were previously subverted/ brainwashed by the Russian diplomats and wagner military trainers regarding presence of French Special forces in Afghan states.

Interestingly, west was caught surprised by the recent Chinese economic outreach and political invasion in economically impoverished Africa, while Moscow’s diplomatic and military advances in Sahel and Western Africa further astonished western nations because the moves of their Asian adversaries were greatly coinciding with each other. As of today, various pro-west governments in Africa had been toppled by military Generals that are more inclined to Russo-China alliance instead of pro-democracy Europe and America. The recent development in global politics including expansion of BRICS in Africa and the Middle East and Putin hosted the Russia-Africa summit that was purely a response to the US-Africa Summit had multiplied the anxiety of western leaders who were earlier not on talking terms with backward African nations. After France, other western nations including Canada, the UK, Germany and Italy are also mulling to rebuild their contacts with the backward world to garner crucial political backing at the multilateral forum, yet this campaign has sensitized the third world nations about political motives of the west.

Historically, there is neither a hard and fast rule in global politics nor any fixed friendship or alliance and those bonds make and break with the changing realities of the contemporary world.

Similarly, no nation is ever completely self sufficient or can live in isolation because of its wealth and abundance of resources. However, European leaders largely ignored this reality while dealing with their counterparts from less developed Asian and African nations. Although, western leaders have realized their guilt and are trying to correct course, it is not necessary that the newest tactic might serve their purpose.