Towards a Neo-bipolar Model of the World Order: Scouting Game in Africa
Аннотация
The article lays out a hypothesis that the global order slides into a new bipolarity in the context of the escalating geo-economic and geopolitical confrontation between the two poles that currently dominate the world the United States and China. The neo-bipolar construction cannot yet be regarded as an established new world order, but the general movement of the world economy and international relations in this direction is obvious. The neo-bipolar confrontation manifests itself with varying intensity in different regions of the world. The author argues that at present, the peripheral regions which are strategically important for the prospects of competition are becoming an important testing ground for relatively “safe” elaboration of methods and tactics of geo-economic rivalry and a mutual exchange of systemic attacks. Today, Africa has become practically the leading theater of the new bipolar confrontation. The article analyzes the economic, military and strategic aspects of the rivalry between the United States and China on the African continent. It provides a comparative analysis of the new African strategies of the two superpowers adopted at the end of 2018. The author suggests that in the context of the emerging global bipolarity, the strategies of the USA and China represent antagonistic programs based on fundamentally different initial messages. In the case of the US strategy, this is to deter by denial the spread of the competitor’s influence using tough policies, including forceful (while not necessarily military) confrontational actions. While China seeks to neutralize the opposition of the United States and its allies to Beijing’s expansion on the continent and to win the freedom of interaction with any partners in Africa causing minimal direct confrontation possible. Therefore, despite the seemingly “peripheral” importance of the confrontation on the continent, for the establishment of a neo-bipolar world order, the proclamation of the new US regional geopolitical strategy, which focuses on the containment of China in the name of protecting democracy and independence, can serve not only for Africa, but for the whole planet the same milestone signal as Churchill’s Fulton speech for the final advent of bipolarity in the post-war world.
Ключевые слова
new bipolarity,
neo-bipolar World Order,
world economy,
theory of international relations,
international political science,
geostrategic rivalry,
Africa,
USA,
China
При поддержке: This article was written under the 2019 Program for Fundamental Studies of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences No. 22 “Analysis and Projections for New Global Challenges in Russia”, Sub-Program “Africa in the New Global Reality: Challenges and Opportunities for Russia.”
Об авторе
L. L. Fituni
Institute of African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Россия
Россия
Leonid L. FITUNI, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences; DSc in Economics; Professor, Deputy-Director, Institute of African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Director, Centre for Strategic and Global Studies
123001, Spiridonovka St., 30/1, Moscow, Russian Federation
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Рецензия
Для цитирования:
Fituni L.L. Towards a Neo-bipolar Model of the World Order: Scouting Game in Africa. Контуры глобальных трансформаций: политика, экономика, право. 2019:16-33.
For citation:
Fituni L.L. Towards a Neo-bipolar Model of the World Order: Scouting Game in Africa. Outlines of global transformations: politics, economics, law. 2019:16-33.
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