Document Type
Working Paper
Publication Date
2025
DOI
10.25776/12ph-7a31
Pages
1-36 pp.
Abstract
The 21st-century scramble for Africa’s resources has revived questions on how external competition can shape domestic power bargains, security, and democratic governance. In comparison to the colonial scramble for Africa, this study examines how resource geopolitics intersect with fragile state institutions in the Africa: case of DRC, Mali, Niger, and CAR. The problematic was built around the dual role of natural resources: first, as economic assets and secondly as political currencies that empower elites, attract foreign intervention, and distort democratic norms. It was guided by resource curse, rentier state, and dependency theories and employed a qualitative, case study analysis to trace how resource rents and external security partnerships recalibrate political authority, institutional checks and citizen space in Africa. The findings showed that resource revenues served as political currency for elite consolidation of power, fund patronage networks needed for regime survival and reinforce a state-security nexus that protects extractive sites at the detriment of public accountability. In the meantime, international actors such as China, Russia, Western firms, and Gulf States influenced these bargains through mineral concessions, infrastructure deals and security assistance. The consequence was the erosion of institutional checks and balances, politicization of elections, control of media narratives, harassment of investigative journalists, and repression of resource based social movements. The study therefore concluded that the contemporary scramble for Africa is intertwined with global resource geopolitics and domestic authoritarian bargains which narrowed democratic space and deepened insecurity. Ultimately, addressing these challenges would require stronger governance frameworks, regional bargaining power, and international norms for ethical resource investment.
Rights
Included with kind permission from the authors.
ORCID
0009-0006-9633-0945 (Edmond)
Original Publication Citation
Edmond, C., Forku, N.D., & Farag, M.I.H. (2025). The geopolitics of resources: Power, security, and democracy in 21st century Africa. 1-36. https://doi.org/10.25776/12ph-7a31
Repository Citation
Edmond, Chick; Forku, Nkenglefack Dessailly; and Farag, Mohamed Ibrahim Hassan, "The Geopolitics of Resources: Power, Security, and Democracy in 21st Century Africa" (2025). Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications. 82.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/politicalscience_geography_pubs/82
Included in
African Studies Commons, Comparative Politics Commons, Defense and Security Studies Commons, International Economics Commons, International Relations Commons, Political Economy Commons, Regional Economics Commons