Benefitting from Great Power Rivalry in Africa

This briefing argues that African governments should avoid a zero-sum approach to the geopolitical rivalry between the US and China, instead leveraging this competition to secure more resources and better trade agreements. The author suggests that by playing rivals against each other and implementing embedded domestic strategic plans, African nations can increase their agency and align foreign investment with national development priorities.

• African governments are encouraged to avoid the 'zero-sum trap' and instead use the competition between the US and China as a positive outcome to leverage more resources, including infrastructure funding, development assistance, investment flows, and improved trade agreements to reduce poverty and boost growth.
• The strategy of pitting rival powers against one another has already yielded results in specific sectors and countries. In Guinea's mining sector, the government used the 'Russia card' to make Chinese negotiators more willing to comply with requests and re-evaluate contract clauses. Similarly, Ethiopia's 2021 attribution of telecom licenses—termed 'the deal of the century'—prioritized national interests to secure a USD 850 million package from the US-backed Safaricom-Vodafone company.
• To maximize benefits from foreign partnerships, the author proposes five measures: avoiding short-term opportunistic offers in favor of national development plans; adopting integrated policies like Senegal's 'Plan Emergent Senegal'; learning from other regions like Southeast Asia and Latin America; increasing bureaucratic capacity through local experts and research centers; and promoting trilateral or quadrilateral cooperation between traditional and new partners.
• Public opinion in Africa does not necessarily view the US-China rivalry as a binary choice. An Afrobarometer survey conducted between 2019 and mid-2021 across 34 countries found that 62% of respondents view China's influence in Africa as positive, while 60% view the influence of the US as positive.

APA

Soulé, F. (2021). Benefitting from Great Power Rivalry in Africa. Africa Policy Research Institute. https://afripoli.org/zero-sum-benefitting-from-great-power-rivalry-in-africa

Chicago

Soulé, Folashadé. Benefitting from Great Power Rivalry in Africa. Africa Policy Research Institute, 2021. https://afripoli.org/zero-sum-benefitting-from-great-power-rivalry-in-africa.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Soulé |first1=Folashadé |title=Benefitting from Great Power Rivalry in Africa |publisher=Africa Policy Research Institute |date=25 October 2021 |url=https://afripoli.org/zero-sum-benefitting-from-great-power-rivalry-in-africa |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{soul2021benefitting, author = {Soulé, Folashadé}, title = {{Benefitting from Great Power Rivalry in Africa}}, institution = {Africa Policy Research Institute}, year = {2021}, month = oct, url = {https://afripoli.org/zero-sum-benefitting-from-great-power-rivalry-in-africa}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }