Postponed : Turkey’s Foreign Policy towards Africa – identity and African agency
by invitation
The Policy Center for the New South is organising a presentation under the theme “Turkey’s Foreign Policy towards Africa – identity and African agency” by Mr. Chris Alden, Professor at the London School of Economics (LSE). The presentation is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, March 19, 2020 in Rabat.
The concept of “agency” and its role in capturing the dynamics between Africa and external actors feature increasingly in the African IR scholarship. Over the past decade, Turkey has become an increasingly prominent actor in Africa, strengthening political, cultural and economic ties with African states and providing humanitarian aid and development assistance. Conventional understanding of the concept of African agency defines it in materialist terms and emphasises its transactional nature; it does not adequately explain incidents of enhanced outcomes for Africans in their relationship with Turkey. We argue that the notion of Muslim kinship in Turkish discourses not only distinguishes Turkey from other external powers engaging with the continent but also enables African interlocutors to negotiate enhanced outcomes.
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Chris Alden, Professor, London School of Economics (LSE)
Chris Alden Professor, London School of Economics (LSE) Dr Chris Alden is a teaches at the Department of International Relations of London School of Economics and Political Science and Co-Head of the Africa International Affairs Programme at LSE Ideas. He has published widely on China-Africa relations including China in Africa (Zed 2007), coedited China Returns to Africa (Hurst 2008) and is co-author of The South in World Politics (Palgrave 2010) and South Africa’s Post-Apartheid Foreign Policy (Oxford 2003). He taught at the University of the Witwatersrand from 1990 to 2000. Professor Alden has held fellowships at Cambridge University, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo; Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto; Ecole Normale Superieure (Cachan), Paris; CERI, Paris; and University of Pretoria.