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Economic Weight and MDB Voting Power of Leading States (2019)

This graphic compares the economic weight of the world’s leading States, as well as their voting power in multilateral development banks (MDB). China has widely funded and built infrastructure in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and its own national banks play a key role in financing these large-scale projects. However, China’s policy banks also face problems of corruption, poor lending practices and repayment problems. MDBs, by contrast, tend to have higher standards and can help improve the way China engages abroad and shares the risks with other member countries.

For more on how China’s recent foray into multilateral banking brings the country multiple financial and geopolitical benefits, read Chris Humphrey & Linda Maduz’s CSS Analysis in Security Policy here.

Achieving A Sustainable Peace in Yemen Lies with Locally Driven Initiatives

Image courtesy of EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid/Flickr. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

This article was originally published by the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) in August 2019.

The conflict in Yemen will not be solved by a peace agreement between the Houthis and the internationally recognized government due to the increased fragmentation of internal political and economic structures.

The United Nations (UN) describes the conflict in Yemen as the world’s largest humanitarian disaster, as more than an estimated 24 million Yemenis currently need assistance. This underscores the urgent need for a comprehensive peace agreement. However, whereas the UN-led ongoing peace negotiations focuses on the elite level, sustainable peace in Yemen will depend on whether or not local actors are incorporated into the transitional political process and the future Yemeni state.

G20 Compact with Africa is a Long Game

Image courtesy of South African Government/Flickr. (CC BY-ND 2.0)

This article was originally published by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) on 5 July 2019.

Africa’s ‘development partners’ still struggle to define and manage their relationship with the continent. This was apparent at the G20 summit in Osaka that ended on Saturday.

The G20 has been accused of treating Africa exclusively as a development problem, thereby excluding it as an equal participant from deliberations about climate change, the future of work, the global trading system and other mammoth issues the G20 presumes to be capable of addressing.

Can China Free Africa from Dependency on the Mighty Dollar?

Image courtesy of Vladimir Solomyani/Unsplash

This article was originally published by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) on 13 August 2018.

By extending the influence of the yuan, China could become the new champion of globalisation.

Is China, aided and abetted by the other BRICS member countries – Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa – making a bid to dislodge the dollar from its global pedestal and replace it with the yuan? And if so, will it help African countries, in particular, to escape from the iron and often onerous grip of the greenback?

The Twists and Turns along China’s Belt and Road

Image courtesy of Pilar Rubio Remiro/Flickr. (CC BY 2.0)

This article was originally published by International Crisis Group on 2 October 2017.

“The project of the century” is how Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi touted the Belt and Road Initiative to the world when addressing the UN General Assembly on 21 September. It was only the latest in a series of pronouncements and events, including a Belt and Road Forum in Beijing in May and the ninth BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit in Xiamen in early September, choreographed to position China at the vanguard of a new stage of globalisation. Step by step, China is demonstrating that the Belt and Road is now the guiding framework for its international economic statecraft.