Dr. Folashadé Soulé is a nonresident scholar in the Africa Program and a senior research associate at the Global Economic Governance programme (Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford). Her research areas focuses on Africa-China relations, the study of agency in Africa’s international relations and the politics of South-South cooperation. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the London School of Economics, and a former Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders fellow. Her research has been published in several peer-review journals among which are African Affairs, Global Governance, and Foro Internacional.
As a policy-facing academic, connecting policy and research, she is the initiator of the Africa-China negotiation workshop series bringing together African negotiators and senior policymakers to exchange and build better negotiation practices when dealing with China. She has also acted as a policy analyst and consultant for several institutions
The U.S.-DRC-Zambia memorandum of understanding demonstrates how the United States aims to counter China and bolster its clean energy supply chains by deepening ties with African nations. Yet how distinct is the U.S. approach from the Chinese approach to such deals?
Beninese officials have shown how even small countries can use close coordination between ministries and other negotiating tactics to strike deals with Chinese counterparts that better protect their own interests.
A closer look at African summitry offers a better understanding of the motives and strategies underlying African leaders’ involvement in these diplomatic exercises and shows how engaging African leaders in these summits could be done in ways that align more with their interests.
