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Stephen Chan

Professor of World Politics, SOAS, University of London

Stephen Chan was awarded an OBE for "services to Africa and higher education" in the summer of 2010, alongside receiving the 2010 Eminent Scholar in Global Development award of the International Studies Association.

Professor Chan has published 27 books on international relations and more than 200 articles and reviews in the academic and specialist press, as well as over 100 journalistic feature articles. His books include Robert Mugabe: A Life of Power and Violence, Kaunda and Southern Africa: Image and Reality in Foreign Policy, and Citizen of Africa: Conversations with Morgan Tsvangirai. His most recent work is The End of Certainty: Towards a New Internationalism.

He participated in the transition to independence of Zimbabwe, the reconstruction of Uganda after the fall of Idi Amin, and also advised and trained government ministries in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Kenya. He established a consortium that trained the Eritrean Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately before and after independence in 1993. He was also part of a consortium that trained the parliamentarians and ministers of post-Dergue Ethiopia from 1998-9. From 2006-7 he was a member of the Africa-China-US Trilateral Dialogue, an effort to establish a common set of principles to help govern the emerging trade wars involving the three continents.

Russia rekindles old friendship with South Africa, its ally against apartheid

Jan 25, 2023 04:42 am UTC| Politics

The recent announcement that the South African, Russian and Chinese navies will conduct joint exercises off the east coast of South Africa between February 17 and 27, has alarmed the United States. Washington has condemned...

Zambia: debt, unpaid salaries and a poor harvest have sown seeds of crisis

May 02, 2019 17:46 pm UTC| Insights & Views

In the volatile landscape of southern Africa, Zambia is often overlooked. It played a huge role in the liberation struggles of its neighbours. The ANC, banned in South Africa by the apartheid government, established its...

New hope in Nigeria, but Zimbabwe struggles with the same old problems

Dec 04, 2018 16:39 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics

There has been a sense of transition in both Nigeria and Zimbabwe recently. In Nigeria, Obiageli Oby Ezekwesili launched her presidential election campaign. She is not expected to win in the 2019 election. At best, she...

Zimbabwe: troubled nation now faces tough foreign policy choices

Oct 04, 2018 14:34 pm UTC| Insights & Views Law

The toxic presidency of Mugabe may be over, but the new Zimbabwean government of Emerson Mnangagwa must quickly make some hard foreign policy decisions if it is to change the countrys fortunes. For so far no major foreign...

Economy

Western Pharma Shifts Focus from China to India Amid Rising Geopolitical Tensions

Western drugmakers are increasingly turning to alternative sources for drug production and clinical trials, shifting their attention away from Chinese contractors. According to industry experts and executives, this...

Stellantis and Italian Government Discuss Measures to Increase Car Production

Stellantis has initiated in-depth discussions with the Italian government with the primary objective of bolstering car production within the country. This collaborative effort aims to boost economic growth and streamline...

How governments use IMF bailouts to hurt political opponents – new research

Sri Lanka received a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in March amid soaring inflation, debt and a sovereign default. In exchange for US$3 billion (2.4 billion), the government committed to spending...

The government just killed 50 infrastructure projects – what matters is whether it will fund them on merit from now on

The federal government has just announced a list of projects to be abandoned as a result of an independent strategic review of its infrastructure investment program. The review found the cost of the A$120 billion,...

Interim housing isn't just a roof and four walls. Good design is key to getting people out of homelessness

State governments across the country have plans to increase social and affordable housing to address ballooning waitlists. While necessary, this wont be enough to clear the backlog of people waiting for public...

Politics

What Joe Biden's meeting with Xi Jinping means for geopolitical tensions

U.S. President Joe Biden has engaged in a crucial face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco. This high-stakes diplomatic encounter was...

How a new identity-focused ideology has trapped the left and undermined social justice

Yasha Mounks new book, The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time, explores a radical progressive ideology that has been taking the world by storm. From its unlikely beginnings in esoteric scholarly theories...

Rwanda plan: Rishi Sunak has insisted on pushing ahead – here's where he could take it next

The UK supreme court has ruled against the governments plan to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing. But this isnt the end of the story a version of the plan is likely to resurface in some form. The initial...

Myanmar’s military junta appears to be in terminal decline

Myint Swe, the acting president of Mynamars military government, has warned that the country will be split into various parts after his armed forces suffered huge territorial losses to resistance fighters recently. His...

China: why there has been a sudden 'surge' of antisemitism in the People's Republic

During the conflict between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, many nations have tried to maintain a neutral stance by not explicitly supporting either side. But despite attempts at balanced commentaries at the top of business and...

Science

NASA's first successful recovery of asteroid samples may reveal information about the origins of the universe

The OSIRIS-REx mission is NASAs first mission to collect samples from an asteroid in this case 101955 Bennu and return to Earth. OSIRIS-REx is an acronym for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification,...

Did this chemical reaction create the building blocks of life on Earth?

How did life begin? How did chemical reactions on the early Earth create complex, self-replicating structures that developed into living things as we know them? According to one school of thought, before the current era...

Will Saturn's rings really 'disappear' by 2025? An astronomer explains

If you can get your hands on a telescope, there are few sights more spectacular than the magnificent ringed planet Saturn. Currently, Saturn is clearly visible in the evening sky, at its highest just after sunset. Its...

Specialized training programs using sensory augmentation devices could prevent astronauts from getting disoriented in space

When landing on the surface of the Moon, astronauts can become spatially disoriented, which is when they lose sense of their orientation they might not be able to tell which way is up. This disorientation can lead to...

Is some of the body that collided with Earth to form the Moon still recognisable inside our planet?

Scientists have dated the birth of the Solar System to about 4.57 billion years ago. About 60 million years later a giant impact collision between the infant Earth and a Mars-sized body called Theia created the...

Technology

European Tech Sector Faces Challenges and Shows Resilience Amid Global Economic Shifts

The European technology sector is navigating a challenging economic environment, as evidenced by recent data from venture capital firm Atomico. This year, European startups are expected to raise around $42 billion, a...

Hexa, Paris's Quiet Powerhouse in the Startup World

Tucked away in Paris, Hexa, a startup studio, has quietly made waves in the business-to-business (B2B) software realm. Though Hexa may not be a household name, its the force behind several successful unicorns like Front,...

Amazon Launches New Serverless Solutions to Simplify Database Management

Amazon recently unveiled its latest advancements in serverless technology during the AWS re:Invent conference in Las Vegas. These innovations aim to simplify the management of Aurora, Elastic Cache, and Redshift serverless...

Hussain Elius Ventures into DeFi with Wind.app

Hussain Elius, known for co-founding Pathao, one of Bangladeshs leading ride-sharing applications, is making strides into the decentralized finance (DeFi) space with his new venture, Wind.app. This smart contract wallet,...

Bitcoin Mining Enhances Energy Efficiency and Grid Stability, New Study Reveals

A recent study brings a different view of Bitcoin mining, highlighting its potential benefits for energy management and grid stability. This study, crafted by Bitcoin advocates and a former key figure in Texas electric...