The admission of African Union into the G20 is important for growth and development of the continent, reckons Dayo Sobowale
Change Management in strategic management parlance is an oxymoron because of the well- known fact that change cannot be managed. It comes on its own and has its timing and mind set and is a precursor of new things and innovation with disruption as its main component. In diplomacy nowadays it is common to see world leaders running from pillar to post in the last one month at summits and conferences to make ends meet for their various nationals, regional and global interests .Their aim is to ensure that they are not left out in the race for global power or relevance in the quest to keep the mandate that put them in power to take care of their electorate or power base . It is the frantic search for the panacea or gate way to economic power and diplomatic clout that engage our attention today.
There is no doubt that a new world order is evolving right before our eyes and it is no use pretending that we do not care. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and Russian use of wheat and oil to fight back is threatening global food and energy security . Trade war between the US and China especially over semi- conductors has reached a stage that has created strange economic bedfellows and is bound to lead to global and regional collision sooner than later. It is my view that new alliances springing up all over the world are desperate reactions by nations to what they perceive as dangerous to their interests even though it is a well known dictum of international relations that in diplomacy there are no permanent friends or enemies but permanent interests .
It is difficult to ignore the fact that the culture war going on in the US, a leading world power and the leader of the unipolar world after 9/11 , 22 years ago is affecting US power and sovereign reputation globally . It is obvious that the Biden Administration has deliberately played down the memorial of the event because of issues associated with the gender identity and new realisations and policies on discrimination and race which it aims to correct through its Critical Race Theory and its strong policy on diversity , inclusion and equity. But such domestic policies are not hidden from the rest of the world which values religion , family and the reality that marriage is between a man and a woman . For American leaders at conferences in Asia, Africa and the Middle East to think that foreign diplomats they sit and negotiate trade, health and infrastructure deals with do not know about such domestic American values is to deceive themselves and their nations. They are certainly adopting the stance of the Taliban when these Islamists assert that women should not be educated and the world at large led by the US and human rights advocates insist the Taliban is wrong and uncivilized. The Taliban cap certainly fits the US on this gender identity and is a dent on the global leadership and sovereign reputation of the US in global power competition, respect and influence.
Some developments arrest our attention in global politics that show that no condition is permanent. I mentioned the fact that the US under the present administration has tried to forget 9/11 and former US president George Bush famous war statement that ‘whether we bring justice to our enemies or our enemies to justice, justice will be served.” Obviously the concept of justice in the US has changed from what America fought for 22 years ago .
Let us look at three new situations that reflect the global change I have in mind. The first is the admission of the African Union into the G20 at the last summit in India. The second is the invitation to Saudi Arabia and Iran on one hand and that of Egypt and Ethiopia on the other hand to Brics an alliance initially made up of Brazil. Russia, India, China and South Africa. I will comment briefly on the import of these new associations and involvement serially.
The admission of the AU is important for growth and development of the African continent. I see this in terms of the prospect of developing African wealth and huge mineral resources in a way that creates a beneficial value chain and insist that beneficiation and mineral processing takes place in Africa, creating employment, with facilities and infrastructure on African soil . The present trend whereby metallurgy takes place after smelting and refining in Europe should be reversed such that the real benefits of the finished products of the raw materials from Africa are not outsourced to European nations that produce the finished products. That was the trade pattern during colonialism and it is still being replicated in various forms especially with EU nations and this admission of the AU should arrest this lopsided and unfair exploitation of African mineral resources .
The invitation of Saudi Arabia and Iran together is important for global peace and religious harmony especially with Islam and the jihadist movement threatening many regions of the world . The admission of the two will be bad news for the US which regards Iran as a global sponsor of Islamic terrorism. The US will not be comfortable with Saudi Arabia in the company of nations like Russia and China in Brics. But Saudi Arabia and the world at large now know that the US is an unreliable ally in crucial matters as it showed in Syria over the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian president against his people and the ignominious way it abandoned Afghanistan recently . More importantly Brics will bring together the two most important leaders of the Islamic world as Saudi Arabia is the leader of the Sunni Muslims and Iran is the leader of the Shiites. Brics certainly had something in mind in inviting both and the prospects are good for global trade and peace .
Ethiopia and Egypt are also two new entrants to Brics who are not at peace with each other . Ethiopia just filled a dam successfully on the Nile River to generate electricity for its people and celebrated the completion recently to Egypt’s consternation. Egypt has protested that the dam will not let the Nile flow downstream to Egypt which relies on the Nile for irrigation and agriculture . Egypt has branded the dam by Ethiopia as illegal. Hopefully they will resolve the issue peacefully at Brics.
Sobowale is of Arise News
