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.
South Africa election: ANC’s lost majority ushers in a new era of coalition politics
Jun 04, 2024 06:18 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics
From the moment this years South African general election was called, through the whole campaign, the main question everyone here was asking was whether the African National Congress (ANC) could extend its 30-year...
Why the upcoming South African election a massive milestone for the ruling ANC
May 24, 2024 03:43 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics
South Africans governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), is in trouble. After 30 years in charge, it is scrambling for support ahead of the upcoming national elections. The ANC has run the country since the...
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...
FDA Approval of Opdivo Injection Sparks Hope for Cancer Patients with Revolutionary Treatment Update