The book Africa's Growing Role in World Politics (Moscow, 2014, 296 p., in English) contains a selection of papers dedicated to discussing the nature of the contemporary international relations and foreign policies of African countries.

The collective work aims to analyze various aspects of the present-day political and economic situation on the African continent and seeks to contribute to the study of Africa's increasing global importance. Most of the papers were initially presented at the 13^th International Conference of Africanists "Society and Politics in Africa: Traditional, Transitional, and New", which took place on May 27 - 30, 2014 at the Institute for African Studies, Moscow.

The volume is conveniently divided into six sections. The first section covers global, regional and local problems pertaining to African countries, in particular their relations with the world and with each other, as well as domestic issues. Special attention in the section is paid to Eritrea, Sudan and South Sudan.

The second section treats of new trends in the cooperation between OECD countries and Africa. This section, which is by far the largest in the book, encompasses a wide variety of issues, including foreign policy, migration and African diasporas, economic relations and development aid.

The third section is devoted to analyzing the role of the BRICS Group on the African continent. The issues discussed in the section include, inter alia, the influence of BRICS on the processes of regionalization and globalization in Africa and the role of Asian transnational corporations on the continent.

The fourth section focuses entirely on the partnership of China and Africa. The included papers offer an in-depth analysis of the partnership in general as well as country-specific studies. The next, fifth, section deals with Russia-Africa relations. The section considers the current state and prospects of Russia-Africa cooperation. The last section of the book is concerned with the contribution of the remaining BRICS countries - India, Brazil and South Africa - to Africa's development.

The volume opens with the article "African States' Foreign Policies in the 21^st Century: New Opportunities and Challenges" by Evgeny Korendyasov. The author provides an accurate overview of the changes that have taken place in Africa over the past twenty years with regard to the continent's role in global politics and economy. The author rightly suggests that the reason behind Africa's growing overall importance is its improved economic position. The African boom has manifested itself in the high GDP growth rates (4 - 6% on average in the past two decades) and a fourfold increase in foreign direct investment (from $154 billion in 2000 to $630 billion in 2012). The drivers of economic success, which the author claims to be long-term, include the wealth of natural resources, the demographic trends, and the growing domestic market.

The economic success has endowed African states with new energy and persistence in defending their national interests. The modern foreign policy of the African countries is based on four strategic pillars: "Pan-Africanism, inter-African bilateral state relations, the priority of the partnership with the emerging countries, and "resource diplomacy" (p. 9). A detailed analysis of the foreign policy trends with regard to the aforementioned pillars justifies a number of conclusions. Firstly, Africa is moving away from Eurocentrism in its foreign policy, making its relations with the world more balanced and equitable. Secondly, despite this prevailing trend, traditional partners, particularly the USA and the EU, are "actively returning to Africa, especially in the area of military cooperation" (p. 14). Lastly, the uncertainty of

the future world order serves as a significant impediment to implementing Africa's strategic plans. The author's main thesis follows that Africa's role has significantly grown over the period, yet its overall position in the world remains precarious given the existing imbalances in the system of international relations.

The article "Analysis of the Humanitarian Situation in Africa South of Sahara (The Case of the Great African Lakes)" by Natalia Sepeleva offers a brief but informative overview of the socioeconomic situation in the DRC, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Tanzania. Most of the focus is placed on the DRC, where the humanitarian situation is by far the direst. The author argues convincingly that the region's natural wealth, which includes huge deposits of fresh water, gold, diamonds, uranium, etc., has brought about the "resource curse", which is particularly affecting the DRC. "Almost every government or armed group participating in the Congolese conflict starts plundering the country's natural resources as soon as they grab some part of its territory" (p. 23). The civil war in the DRC claimed from 4 to 5.4 million lives, and currently there are still nearly 3 million internally displaced persons in the country. The author reasonably believes that in order to stop violence in the Great Lakes region, "it is necessary to regulate the extraction and sales of mineral resources, as well as to expand the regional cooperation" (p. 26). Then the region is very likely to become a major driver of the continent's growth.

Alexander Zhukov's article on "Eritrea's Role in the Horn of Africa Regional Politics: Background, Status Quo, and Prospects" outlines the history of this country and discusses its relations with Ethiopia, Yemen, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda and Kenya. The paper provides a full insight in how Eritrea has become a "pariah state" in Africa. The major milestones include Eritrea's armed conflicts with Yemen (1995), Ethiopia (1998 - 2000), and Djibouti (2008), its involvement in sponsoring Somalia's al-Shabaab extremist group, and its pull-out from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) (2007). The author correctly points out that the crises in Eritrea's relations with the majority of the neighboring countries "produced an effect of a "besieged state", a state with a degrading national economy, a state that is hostile to almost all of its neighbors and overlooked by most of the international investors active in the region" (p. 28).

Zhukov comes to a conclusion that Eritrea's foreign policy in the last fifteen years has been based on the premises that the country will remain "besieged" and that most of the outer world is biased against Eritrea and supports its primary foe - Ethiopia. At the same time, the current isolation of the country is exploited by the Eritrean regime to strengthen its positions domestically. For these reasons, the author concludes that the regime is neither able nor willing to conduct a more peaceful policy in the region. The transformation of the regime itself into a less authoritarian one also seems unlikely. The author convincingly predicts that Eritrea's foreign and domestic policies will remain a factor of regional instability in the foreseeable future.

The article "Sudan after the Division with South Sudan: Economic Crisis and Political Instability" by Sergey Kostelyanets describes the socioeconomic and political situation in the post-split Sudan. The author presents an overview of the economic problems the country faced in 2011 - 2014 and analyses Sudan's anti-crisis program. The program produced mixed results and wasn't able to fully compensate for the loss of oil revenue, which had constituted 60% of the total revenue, after the secession of the South. The paper argues compellingly that "in Sudan, the intrusion of politics into the field of economics is raised to an extreme" (p. 42) and lists the main factors that hinder Sudan's economic recovery: the armed conflicts in Darfur, Kordofan and Blue Nile and the absence of long-overdue political and economic reforms in the country. The author poignantly characterizes the national dialogue process initiated by the government as an ambiguous project lacking the political will, consistency and predictable results.

Further papers in the section include Anatoly Khazanov's article on anti-American sentiment in Africa and Sergey Seregichev's discussion of an "Arab Spring" scenario for Sudan.

In the article "Obama Administration Policy in Africa" Audrey Urnov asserts that "President Obama generally followed the course of his predecessors, while increasing the efforts aimed to strengthen political, economic, military, and other links with African states" (p. 50). The author contends that the three key reasons behind the policy are the following: (1) geopolitical and strategic interests, (2) economic interest in African markets and natural resources, and (3) security interests. The "pillars" of the official policy include strengthening democratic institutions, stimulating economic development, enforcing peace and security, and contributing to capacity building. The author notes that while the fundamental principles of the U.S. policy remained unchanged, the Obama administration tried to take the U.S. involvement in Africa to a qualitatively new level. Urnov states forthrightly that the renewed U.S. interest in Africa was triggered by Africa's significant economic development and the growing competition with China and other international actors on the continent. To illustrate the path taken by the administration to implement the policy, Urnov provides an insightful review of various U.S. programs and projects in Africa, including the military component.

Olga Kulkova in her article "Africa and the EU: Drifting Together or Running Counter? Key Problems of the Dialogue at the Present Stage" thoroughly reviews the EU - Africa relations since 2000. While noting the progressive track record of the relations, the author doesn't neglect the most problematic issue: migration. The so-called "Fortress Europe" is opening up gradually, but not fast enough for Africa's liking. Kulkova echoes Korendyasov and Urnov when she speaks of the decline in the importance of the EU as Africa's economic partner. In this connection, some clauses of the trade system proposed by the EU

(the 2000 Cotonou Agreement) are seen by many African countries as "unidirectional in the EU's favor" (p. 63).

The article "Evolution of EU Policies towards Africa and New European Approaches to Development Aid" by Ivan Lileev centers on the two obstacles that the EU policy on Africa is facing. Firstly, there is a growing divide between the most economically developed African states, interested in raising their competitive capacity by gaining access to European markets, and the least developed states, seeking more donations and humanitarian aid. Secondly, the aid mechanism offers no effective tools of control over spending, giving rise to mismanagement and corruption. Lileev asserts persuasively that the EU is committed to increasing transparency and economic self-sufficiency in Africa.

Grigory Karpov develops the theme of African migration to the EU in his article "Trends of African Diasporas' Development in the UK and EU in the 2000s". Karpov points out that the African diasporas in the EU (totaling approximately 8 million people) take an active part in the daily life of European societies. In addition, despite the tough immigration policies of the EU, "around half a million illegal immigrants enter the European Union annually" (p. 93). The author then focuses on the case of the UK, where the African diaspora numbers about 1 million. He maintains that Africans take advantage of the British educational system, where they perform better that their native peers. The author also touches on the phenomenon of British identity crisis: "Africans more often associate themselves with the identity "British" than the native population itself" (p. 96).

Other authors focusing on various aspects of the interaction of OECD states and Africa include Sergey Poruchikov, Dmitriy Kochetov, Anton Rodin, Murad Shamilov, and Claudia Mularoni (San Marino).

The article "China's Role in Africa in the 21^st Century" by Tatiana Deych deals specifically and quite insightfully with the growing involvement of China in Africa. The author makes a convincing case that "Africa has taken a central place in China's strategy of building a 'Southern Block' of states as a mechanism that meets the challenges of globalization" (p. 176). The article then attends to such elements of China's African policy as "soft power", the hunt for resources, development assistance, trade relations, peacekeeping, and the political non-interference principle. Deych demonstrates that China is shifting its development assistance for Africa from 'hard' to 'soft' infrastructure assistance, meaning more emphasis on education, people-to-people exchange, and joint research. The author doesn't shy away from discussing the problems in China-Africa relations. These include the growing presence of Chinese people on the continent and the influx of cheap Chinese goods to Africa. However, the author is inclined to believe that the benefits of China's involvement on the continent far outweigh the risks. At the end Deych aptly points out that "China has forced developed countries to refocus attention on the problems of the African continent" (p. 184).

Evgeny Korendyasov's "Russia Returns to Africa" attempts to paint a refreshingly bright picture of the possibilities in Russian-African relations. While noting that today these relations "are clearly lacking in scale, ambition, institutional equipment, and implementation tools" (p. 239), the author claims that it is too early to think that Russia has completely missed its chance in Africa. The article convincingly argues that Russia is in great need of Africa's minerals, particularly manganese, tin, chromium, etc. Gaining access to Africa's hydrocarbon resources is especially important in view of growing costs of extraction in Russia and falling energy exports to Europe. Korendyasov insists that the existing level of Russian-African political relations provides a good basis for expanding economic cooperation, but Russian business in Africa needs systematic support by the state.

The last section is best represented by Viacheslav Usov's article "African Policy of India and Indian Diaspora: Risk Assessment". The article investigates the prospects for mobilizing the Indian diaspora in Africa to facilitate India-Africa political and economic relations. The author draws a comparison between India's and China's diaspora policies and concludes that the former has incorporated many elements of the latter. Usov pays substantial attention to India's internal divisions over how to deal with the diaspora: "there is a major difference between those who would like to utilize the diaspora resources for the aims of India's development" and those who give the diaspora little recognition (p. 278). Usov concludes that India's recent political dynamic (the victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party) may lead to the revitalization of India's diaspora policy.

The relations between BRICS countries and Africa are further discussed in the articles by Vladimir Yurtaev, Nina Tsvetkova, Yury Smertin, Galina Smirnova, Alia Borzova, Aya Abenova, Justin Van der Merve (South Africa), Serhlare Makgetlaneng (South Africa), David Shinn (USA), Mamoudou Gazibo (France), Alice Nicole Sindzingre (France), Mohamed Hamchi and Samia Rebiai (Algeria).

The authors of the volume are practically unanimous in affirming that the role of Africa, its peoples and its diaspora has grown considerably over the past couple decades. Most of the authors agree that Africa's emergence on the world stage is benefiting common Africans, but the process still presents many challenges. The main thread of the book is the theme of a multidimensional competition between and among OECD and BRICS countries. All key international actors are increasingly involved in Africa, and they are systematically developing policies and instruments to promote their political and economic interests on the continent.

In this respect, the book reviews a great variety of approaches to developing relations with Africa, some of which may be considered the best practices in foreign policy, of interest not only to researchers, but also to policymakers.

Sergey KOSTELYANETS, PhD (Political Science) Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences

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