Africa in the Face of Global Transformation

In the twenty-first century Africa is destined to become one of the most prominent centers of human development. This is preconditioned by its demographic potential, vast natural resources and two decades of rapid economic growth. The main obstacles to Africa’s future remain the enduring legacy of neo-colonialism, the continued vulnerability of its political systems and the ambitions of powerful Western countries that continue to view Africa as their fiefdom. As the current unipolar world order breaks down, Africa has every chance of becoming another significant pole of the world to come. Russia should be an important ally of African countries, with which they have traditionally friendly relations since the Soviet period and in which the Africans themselves see the leader of the non-Western world in the struggle against the protracted Western hegemony. A holistic, scientifically grounded view of these processes is presented in the book by Irina Abramova and Leonid Fituni “Contemporary Issues in African Studies and Socio-Economic Development” (2022), which is the subject of this review. The book includes 25 articles and reports made by the authors between 2012 and 2022. They analyze three groups of issues: the theory of the world economy and global development from the perspective of developing countries, the problems of the African continent, Russia’s national interests in Africa, and contemporary Russian-African relations. The reader will easily find that the scientific arguments made by the authors are presented not from the point of view of a detached scientific mind, but from the position of the state approach. The idea that Russian African studies should serve the interests of Russia runs through the entire book, that is why each of the texts presented in the book, along with relevant scientific information, contains recommendations that allow representatives of political, business and intellectual circles to engage in the African agenda.

1. Abramova I. (2005). The Arab City at the Turn of the Millennium (On the Example of Egypt). Moscow: Vostochnaya Literatura, 252 pp. (in Russian).

2. Abramova I. (2009). African Migration: Experience of Systemic Analysis. Moscow: Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 354 pp. (in Russian).

3. Abramova I. (2010). Africa’s Population in the New Global Economy. Moscow: Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 496 pp. (in Russian).

4. Abramova I., Fituni L. (2022). Contemporary Issues in African Studies and Socio-Economic Development: Selected and Academic Papers (2012–2022). Moscow: Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 480 pp. (in Russian).

5. Abramova I., Fituni L., Sapuntsov A. (2007). “Emerging” and “Failed States” in the Global Economy and Politics. Moscow: Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 196 pp. (in Russian).

6. Abramova I., Polikanov D. (2001). Internet and Africa: Parallel Realities. Moscow: Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 171 pp. (in Russian).

7. Fituni L. (1981). Economic Development of Independent Angola. Moscow: Nauka, 173 pp. (in Russian).

8. Fituni L. (2009). The Economics of International Terrorism. Moscow: Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 470 pp. (in Russian).

9. Fituni L. (2012). Africa: Resource Wars of the 21st Century. Moscow: Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 246 pp. (in Russian).

10. Fituni L., Abramova I. (2010). Resource Potential of Africa and Russia’s National Interests in the XXI Century. Moscow: Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 212 pp.

11. Fituni L., Abramova I. (2018). Islam, Global Governance and the New World Order. Moscow: Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 376 pp. (in Russian).