Dividing the Petroleum Pie: The Implications of Competition for Natural Resources in Africa between the USA and China on the US National Interests (original) (raw)
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Review Paper
This paper seeks to analyze the American and Chinese Policies for Africa from an insider perspective. The authors open dialogue into the undressed economic concerns pointing at some of the African development dilemmas caused by China and America in Africa. They argue that neither America nor China has friends or enemies but purely interests in realizing African economic growth or social progress but their policy is masking themselves to accelerate every possible chance of exploiting African natural resources. With the emergence of oligopolistic players in the global economy, America an China inclusive, all of which scramble for mineral wealth and African markets, they come with high price and costs of humanitarian crisis and immense human rights violations and degradation of the environment severely affecting majorly the African continent. With deliberate economic pressure exerted on the African people that denies their right to control or manage their natural resources propels the authors to think that some of the people who are sometimes called terrorists may not actually be terrorists but could be innocent divergent thinkers who are fighting for their natural and geographical rights to resources. … Drawing from the findings of previous scholars that examined the structural operation of the American and Chinese policies for Africa, the authors argue that America and China do not have friends or enemies in Africa but interests. The authors recommend radical approaches to be employed by African governments to counter-balance the American hostile and Chinese-looting operations in order to contribute to a better Africa. Keyword: American, policy, insider, scramble, natural resources and conflicts