Ladies and gentlemen, good day.

I would like to have this opportunity

to thank professor Badie

for inviting me to participate

and also to have this opportunity

to talk with him about the future of Africa

and international player in world politics.

We are not talking about ancient Africa;

we are talking about modern Africa,

Africa that came out after 1885 Berlin conference

that also was very much shaped

by political developments

after the Second World War,

when a number of African countries

obtained their independence.

Africans at that time were

very much concerned with their unity.

Organization of African Unity

came to bring together independent states

preserving their political independence,

territorial integrity and also looking after

the welfare of their population.

Later it was succeeded by the African Union

taking over the same mission

that Organization of African Unity

have started, but African Union

also was somehow confronted

with a number of challenges,

some of which has to do

with the internal wars between states

and intra state conflicts,

some of it has to do also with the conditions

of economic development of the country.

So the concerns and challenges

were many but the African countries

are trying somehow to pull together,

defining African identity

and trying to play a role in world politics.

My questions to professor Badie

is the extent to which African leaders

have somehow managed to use

the grammar of world politics

and somehow to bring Africa

to the world stage.

Yes, this is a great problem.

I think that things were very easy

during the Cold war and the bipolarity

because the battlefield of the world

was located in Europe

and because we faced two main actors:

USSR and United States and,

even when the Third world was structuring

from the famous Bandung conference,

the Third world had to be related

to one camp or another.

If we take into account Bandung,

Nasser was behind USSR

and Pakistan for instance

was behind the USA.

Now this world is over

and you know in Europe,

I think that we made a great mistake

at that time that is to say 1989-1990,

because we thought that

with the end of the bipolarity,

we were starting a new era

which would be the multipolar world,

a multipolar era.

But this didn’t work.

That is to say behind polarisation

there is a very strong idea

which is the capacity of attracting

and if Europe expected

to be a pole in the world,

it has to be able to attract other countries

and to be one of the main actors in the world.

Now, there are no more main actors

– there are actors.

And this is in the meantime a chance

and a risk for Africa.

It is a chance because now Africa

can get emancipated

from all the traditional powers

because there is no ruling power in the world.

Neither USA who is more and more

cautious in its foreign policy,

neither Russia, neither even Europe.

And however, this capacity

to be one autonomous actor

is contradicted by another trend

and this other trend is very tragic

that is to say Africa is now the new,

one of the new battlefield of the world.

And the question is how Middle East,

which is the other battlefield in the world,

how Africa which is the second

or first battlefield in the world

can participate in governing the world

– and this is a little bit disappointing

because I think that the main failure

of all power is not to be able

to include new countries

in the global governance,

in the governance of the world.

After the colonisation, no new international institutions

were created except UNDP for instance.

But except UNDP, no change

in the charter of the United Nations.

United Nations was created by 51 members

now it is 193 and the charter is hardly modified

and of course no new agencies,

no new institutions were created.

So I will reply to your question

by another question: how can Africa

be an active partner in governing the world

if we have to admit that Europe

and all powers among which US

did not manage a room of autonomy

and participation of Africa

in governing the world?

I think this is an interesting question.

I think African leaders

have to put their acts together

and have to face both internal

and external challenges.

Internally they have actually to unite

the African states around

an African identity and African vision.

For projecting an African character

in the international world

- do you know that we have for example

East Africa community,

we have southern Africa, west Africa,

you have North Africa also.

This kind of subregional identities

emerging within Africa,

they could somehow contribute

to feed into the process

of an overall African role

which should actually strengthen

this but at the same time,

they have also these external challenges.

Now, for example, the concept

of international actors for the Africans,

in the past years, usually

because of the history of colonialism,

it was the European actors,

but now you have newcomers to Africa.

You have China, you have India also as well.

So Africa, as you rightly characterize,

aside for this novelty,

the China are investing heavily

for example in my own country,

in the Sudan, in Angola, in West Africa

and also the Russia is coming

also again coming a very role.

And also both of them are somehow trying

to impact on Africa

with different versions of development

of different versions of democracy,

for example we hear sometimes from East Asia,

Chinese led discourse on development

– development without democracy,

which somehow for some African autocrats,

that is a very kind

of attractive discourse to listen to.

But at the same time,

Africa is also a laboratory or even a field

for the new liberal economic policies,

for example championed by the IMF

and the World Bank in many countries.

Whether they have succeeded or not,

that is a question that we could deal

with another time, but again the Africans

have somehow to put together

an African perspective of development.

They could do that by drawing

their own indigenous knowledge

wisdom by also interacting fruitfully

with the discourses from outside.

I think the challenges are a tall order

for the African leaders: how to manage

this complex web of challenges,

both emanating from the internal situations

as well as those coming from the outside situation.

I think that we can conclude

in a balanced way, that is to say,

first Africa has many assets:

we have to take into account

on the demographic point of view,

I think that within 30 or 50 years,

one human being out of 4

will be an African and that is probably

the exact measure of the weight

of Africa in the world.

Second, Africa is a rich continent

and that is to say many minerals,

many resources, oil and so on.

Third, of course, Africa will be more and more

a market and must be included:

I think that one of the problems of Africa

is now that African trade covers

about two percent of the global trade,

but this is changing and will probably

change at rather quick speed.

But Africa is facing now

three grave problems:

first of all, the lack of human security,

that is to say food security

and health security.

The second point is the lack of employment

that is to say if you take

into account some African countries like Niger,

Niger has about 70% of his population

has less than 30 years.

What kind of jobs can we offer

to this people and so,

if they are not employed

they have an option, either to be a migrant

with all the risk and dangers

associated to migration,

or becoming maybe a child soldier.

And the third one is political,

that is to say how to promote democracy

and a working political system

as Africa counts probably

the highest number of failed state inside.

That is a problem.

But I am quite sure that of course

this is depending on the African willingness

but it is depending on the international order,

and I think that without a real cooperation,

no progress can be expected

on the front of human security.

Without a new economic order,

nothing can be expected about the new jobs.

And this is my last word:

without a real global governance,

not limited to old powers,

but really including without any kind of exclusion

by boycott or marginalization

but a real partnership,

I am sure that Africa will be

the continent of tomorrow.

Thank you professor, thank you

Débat de conclusion : Bertrand Badie / Atta El Battahani

Afrique et mondialisation, regards croisés

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