REGION

Africa

Research organized by country and region.

Global System & Power

BRICS, Pix and rare earths: Brazil between monetary autonomy, US–China competition and the political crisis of 2026

A documented, 40-source economic and strategic investigation of Lula's BRICS currency proposals, US complaints about Pix, the revised USGS Brazilian rare-earth reserves, completed USAR–Serra Verde takeover and US-backed offtake, the Brazilian 2026 election and testable claims of diplomatic pressure.

Global System & Power

Egypt: river-state continuity, demographic pressure and the struggle to finance a strategic crossroads

Egypt's economy has repeatedly been organized around the Nile, a dense population core and control of routes between the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Africa and Asia; in 2026 the central challenge is to convert strategic geography and a large domestic market into productivity while reducing inflation, debt pressure and the state's crowding-out of private capital.

Global System & Power

Ethiopia: highland state formation, demographic scale and the difficult transition from public-investment growth to a market-based economy

Ethiopia combines a long history of highland state formation with one of Africa's largest populations and a recent model of state-led infrastructure and industrial investment; in 2026 rapid growth coexists with inflation, foreign-exchange reform, debt restructuring and the social consequences of recent conflict.

Global System & Power

South Africa: mineral wealth, apartheid's spatial legacy and the productivity cost of exclusion

South Africa built Africa's deepest mining-financial-industrial system through gold, diamonds and state-supported infrastructure, but apartheid locked labour and urban space into extreme inequality; three decades after democratization, weak investment, unemployment, electricity and logistics remain the central constraints on inclusive growth.