Public lectures series for 2014-2015
25 Nov 2014IIWS – Institute for Islamic World Studies is pleased to invite you to attend its first public lectures series for 2014-2015
“The New Scramble for Africa: Sino- American Rivalry” by Prof. Hamdy A. Hassan”
Lecture Summary:
“The African continent has been, for many centuries since the slave trade, subject to multiple processes of resource-draining by power hungry nations.
Patrick Bond, in his book Looting Africa, states that the processes of looting the African continent include:
- slave trade which was responsible for the displacement of 12 million slaves,
- illicit trade of minerals,
- the proliferation of racist ideologies as a means of justifying colonization,
- the division of Africa in the negotiation rooms in Berlin,
- the formulation of totalitarian colonies and apartheid states,
- the German occupation of Namibia, Portuguese and Belgian conquests,
- proxy warfare during the Cold War as well as warfare related to the search of valuable minerals such as Diamonds and Coltan.
The new scramble for Africa, then seems to be a continuation of an ongoing episode of looting the continent. The rapid increase in raw minerals and oil prices has driven traditional powers like the United States and Europe, and rising powers like China, to thrive for the control of the African oil well.
The goal here becomes not only profit-seeking, but also a bid to seize strategic resources. The United States, in this sense, faces a threat to its current strategic position in the region, and hence relies on the same anti-terrorism narrative as adopted in the Middle East to justify military intervention. The aspirations of the United States go beyond securing reliable and plentiful sources of oil, but also in combating the growing Chinese influence and religious extremism.
Perhaps this “New Front” in the battle against jihadi Islam, alongside issues of Security and Energy formulate a mixture that characterizes the old and the new scrambles alike and justify the militarized American approach that accompanies the global anti-terrorism mission.”
Venue: Dubai Campus, Hall 1
Date: November, 26th 2014
Time: 12 pm – 2 pm
Lecture language: the lecture will be conducted in English