🛜🌍 Information Technology for Africa: A New Threat of Colonisation or the Road to the Future?

On May 22, 2024, the Valdai Club hosted an expert discussion, titled “Advanced Information Technologies as a Driver of Socio-Economic Development for African Countries.” 

💬 Oleg Barabanov, the moderator of the discussion, called the formation of a new economy based on knowledge one of the key priorities of modern development, adding that it was especially important for developing countries.

💬 Konstantin Pantserev, a professor at St. Petersburg State University, outlined the general framework of the situation. He noted that after gaining independence, African countries faced the problem of integrating into the system of international relations. In information technology, many countries managed to achieve noticeable success in this area; Africa’s ‘mobile revolution’ can be considered an example of this. However, one problem remains: the lack of funds for the implementation of ambitious projects.

💬 Adu Yao Nicaise, Associate Professor at Department of International Law at Patrice Lumumba People's Friendship University of Russia, devoted his speech to the legal side of the matter. African states pay a lot of attention to issues of legal regulation in the field of information technology and artificial intelligence. However, the servers are still located in foreign countries, outside their jurisdiction. This gives rise to many collisions and conflicts.

💬 Claire Ayuma Amuhaya, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Theory and History of International Relations at Patrice Lumumba People's Friendship University of Russia, emphasised that even African countries' own innovations, which serve as a reason for justified pride, usually rely on foreign technology. She also noted with regret the clearly insufficient level of spending on research and development in Africa - much lower than average in the world, calling for a focus on this area.

💬 Olusesan Michael Awoleye, Ph.D., a Senior Research Fellow at the African Institute for Science Policy, and Innovation at Obafemi Awolowo University, provided a vision from Nigeria. He associated a certain lag in development with colonisation, also recognising that Nigeria remains a user of technology rather than a producer. In addition, problems with the energy supply and infrastructure continue to be continent-wide. However, Africa is a market that has enormous potential and offers great opportunities for investors.

💬 Artwell Nhemachena, Research Fellow at the University of South Africa and Senior Lecturer at the University of Namibia, called it a problem that both technology and scientific knowledge come to Africa from outside. “The root of the problem is that we are not inventing anything,” he said. The first problem leads to the second – the risk of colonisation.

💬 Macharia Munene, Professor of History and International Relations at the United States International University in Nairobi, Kenya, emphasised the importance of critical thinking. Development is determined not only by the presence of technologically competent personnel, but also by a friendly environment created by political measures. It was with the latter - the development and implementation of competent policies - that serious difficulties arose in Africa due to the colonial experience.

https://valdaiclub.com/events/posts/articles/information-technology-for-africa-a-new-threat-of-colonisation-or-the-road-to-the-future/

#GlobalAlternatives #Africa #technologies

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📳🌍 Upon gaining independence, the nations of Africa faced the challenge of integrating into the global system as equal players.

The leadership of these countries largely linked its strategy to the implementation of industrialisation in order to achieve parity with the world’s leading powers within a decade or two in terms of socio-economic progress.

However, lacking a solid financial and technological base to address this objective, African countries became reliant on external assistance for development, which has only increased over time.

According to African governments, public-private partnerships are expected to play a crucial role in the development of innovation centres. These partnerships involve the state covering only a small portion of the overall costs associated with the construction of these centres, typically around 5-10%.

The success of these projects largely depends on private companies, which are expected to get a favourable environment for their operations, Konstantin Pantserev writes.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/africa-overcome-reliance/

#GlobalAlternatives #Africa #technologies

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🗑️ On average, each person wastes 79 kg of food annually. This is the equivalent of 1.3 meals every day for everyone in the world impacted by hunger.

We prepared an infographic on the problem of food waste increasing throughout the world. Find the high-res infographic on our website.

#valdai_infogaphics #ecology #waste

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🌏🌎 The expansion of NATO is the immediate external factor behind the Russia-Ukraine conflict. 

As a military alliance, NATO could only maintain its internal peace, but has brought about adverse impacts on the overall security of the European continent.

The global strategic imbalance which emerged after the Cold War is a crucial reason why the Russia-Ukraine conflict is still going on today.

The conflict should be regarded as a consequence of a global and regional strategic political imbalance.

Active efforts should be made to rectify such an imbalance. To do so, developing countries should work together to make a contribution to building a new global balance, write Wang Yiwei and Duan Minnong.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/two-years-into-the-russia-ukraine-conflict/

#WiderEurasia #NATO #Ukraine #WorldOrder

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📆 #SPIEF: On June 6 at 15:00 Moscow Time (GMT+3), as part of the business programme of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2024, the Valdai Discussion Club will hold its ninth annual special session for the event: “Conflict or Harmony? The Secret of Proper Development in the 21st Century.”

📍The event will take place in Conference Hall G2 at Pavilion G of the ExpoForum Convention and Exhibition Centre, and will be open to all Forum attendees. The session will also be livestreamed on the Club’s website.

The theme of this year’s Valdai Club discussion is based on the premise that modern conflicts are a legacy of a past era and not a means to shape a future one. Instead, the future success of global and national development depends on our ability to avoid conflict. 

The Valdai Club will provide an opportunity for experts from Russia, India, Indonesia, China and South Africa to present views that differ from Western concepts and discuss ways of promoting conflict-free harmonious development.

Participants in the Valdai Club session will consider the following issues:

❓How could interstate contradictions be resolved without clashes?
❓What conditions contribute to the harmonious development of diverse societies?
❓How can we overcome inequality, which gives rise to social conflicts and leads to political conflict?
❓Is the global community prepared to recognize the futility of conflict and seek new paths of development?

By tradition, the Valdai Club session at SPIEF-2024 will be opened by Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club.

🎙️ Speakers:

🇮🇳 Ram Madhav Varanasi, President of the India Foundation (India)

🇿🇦 Gustavo De Carvalho, Senior Research Fellow for Russian-African Relations at the South African Institute of International Affairs (South Africa)

🇮🇩 Rahakundini Bakrie Connie, professor at St. Petersburg State University (Indonesia)

🇨🇳 Wang Huiyao, Founder and President of Center for China and Globalization (China)

🇷🇺 Ruslan Yunusov, Co-founder Russian Quantum Centre

Moderator:

🗣 Fyodor Lukyanov, Research Director of the Valdai Discussion Club

https://valdaiclub.com/events/announcements/conflict-or-harmony-the-secret-of-proper-development-in-the-21st-century/

Working languages: Russian, English.

ℹ️ Venue:  Conference Hall G2, Pavilion G of the Expoforum Convention and Exhibition Centre, Petersburg highway 64/1, St. Petersburg.

Admission to the event is possible for SPIEF-2024 participants and journalists accredited at the Forum.

Links to the live broadcast of the discussion will be posted on all online platforms of the Valdai Club: on the website, X (formerly Twitter), VK, Telegram and Dzen.

#SPIEF2024 #valdaiclub

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📆 ANNOUNCEMENT: On June 1 at 19:00 Moscow Time (GMT+3), the Valdai Club will participate in a webinar titled “The Radical Reorientation of Russian Foreign Policy”. Its organizer is the International Manifesto Group, which studies the evolution of the world order. The Valdai Club will act as an information partner for this event.

Russia’s foreign policy is experiencing a historical shift today, comparable to the early 1990s or the end of the 17th century, when Russia under Peter the Great turned to the European experience in pursuing new paths of development.

Sergei Karaganov, one of the leading experts on Russian foreign and defence policy, will share his assessments and forecasts at the webinar. First, in the format of an interview, which will be conducted by the Valdai Club experts Richard Sakwa and Radhika Desai, then, answering questions from the audience. Also, at the beginning of the webinar, Oleg Barabanov, Programme Director of the Valdai Club, will make an opening speech.

❓How is the reorientation of Russian politics proceeding so far?
❓What are its causes and driving forces?
❓What consequences does this entail for the Ukraine conflict?
❓What are the prospects for the division of the world between the West and the world majority?
❓How will Russian military doctrine change?

The participants will try to answer these and other questions during the webinar.

🎙️ Speaker:

🇷🇺 Sergei Karaganov, Academic Supervisor at the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, National Research University Higher School of Economics; Honorary Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defence Policy (SVOP); Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Russia in Global Affairs journal @ruglobalaffairs; one of the founders of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Europe

🎙️ Interviewers:

🇨🇦 Radhika Desai, Professor, Department of Political Studies, Director of the Geopolitical Economics Research Group, University of Manitoba (Winnipeg, Canada)

🇬🇧 Richard Sakwa, Professor of Russian and European Politics at the University of Kent at Canterbury, senior researcher at the National Research University Higher School of Economics and honorary professor at the Faculty of Political Science of Lomonosov Moscow State University

https://valdaiclub.com/events/own/the-radical-reorientation-of-russian-foreign-policy-webinar/

Working languages: English, Russian.

✅ Register for a video conference on the Zoom platform here.

#valdaiclub

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⏰ TODAY at 19:00 Moscow Time (GMT+3), the Valdai Club will participate in a webinar titled “The Radical Reorientation of Russian Foreign Policy”.

Its organizer is the International Manifesto Group, which studies the evolution of the world order. The Valdai Club will act as an information partner for this event.

Sergei Karaganov, one of the leading experts on Russian foreign and defence policy, will share his assessments and forecasts at the webinar. First, in the format of an interview, which will be conducted by the Valdai Club experts Richard Sakwa and Radhika Desai, then, answering questions from the audience. Also, at the beginning of the webinar, Oleg Barabanov, Programme Director of the Valdai Club, will make an opening speech.

❓How is the reorientation of Russian politics proceeding so far?
❓What are its causes and driving forces?
❓What consequences does this entail for the Ukraine conflict?
❓What are the prospects for the division of the world between the West and the world majority?
❓How will Russian military doctrine change?

The participants will try to answer these and other questions during the webinar.

https://valdaiclub.com/events/own/the-radical-reorientation-of-russian-foreign-policy-webinar/

Working languages: English, Russian.

✅ Register for a video conference on the Zoom platform here.

#valdaiclub

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🇺🇸⛔️ In the United States, both houses of Congress approved the bill H.R. 8038, titled “21st Century Peace through Strength Act”.

In Russia, the bill received resonance in connection with the legal mechanism for the confiscation of Russia’s sovereign assets. Previously, there were no such mechanisms in the arsenal of US sanctions policy towards Russia. 

The new federal legislation gives the president a mechanism that was previously absent from the executive branch. The head of state, by his decrees, may freeze, but not confiscate, the property of a foreign state.

In the future, this legal mechanism can be expanded, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Ivan Timofeev. 

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/on-a-new-mechanism-for-the-confiscation-of-russian/

#Multipolarity_and_Connectivity #confiscation #sanctions #UnitedStates

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🇹🇷🇮🇱 The IDF's Operation Iron Swords in the Gaza Strip is exceptional in its scale and duration, as well as due to numerous associated consequences, including Turkey’s decision to suspend trade ties with Israel.

In early April of this year, the Turkish Ministry of Trade suspended 54 categories of goods from being exported to Israel, ranging from construction materials to aviation fuel. Ankara said the introduction of restrictions had been motivated by the “gross violations of international law” the IDF had committed during Operation Iron Swords, and declared a ceasefire as a condition for the lifting of sanctions. In the first days of May, citing the same reasons, Turkish authorities announced a complete cessation of export and import transactions with Israel.

A new round of disagreements between the two states risks aggravating the internal political situation in Israel and its position in the system of international economic relations. Additionally, it signals that the Israeli leadership has not sufficiently elaborated its regional strategy, despite the country’s desire to continue normalisation with its neighbours, writes Elizaveta Yakimova.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/trade-adversaries-the-impact-of-the-idf-military/

#Multipolarity_and_Connectivity #Turkey #Israel

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❓🇪🇺 On the eve of the next elections to the European Parliament (EP), which are due to take place on June 6-9, 2024, the attention of experts, as usual, is on the Eurosceptic parties, which are once again predicted to increase their presence.

In the most general terms, Euroscepticism reflects an attitude of protest regarding deepening European integration, the transfer of states’ sovereign power to the supranational level and the power of European political elites at the expense of democratic legitimacy and transparency.

But is Euroscepticism as dangerous as they say, and will it be possible to shake the positions of the ruling centre-right coalition led by the European People's Party (EPP), asks Daria Moiseeva, senior research fellow at IMEMO RAS.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/eurosceptics-in-the-european-parliament-a-failed-a/

#WiderEurasia #EU #EuropeanParliament #Euroscepticism

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