• Christine Hackenesch
• Tobias Heidland
• Denis M. Tull (Hg.)

Leverage and Limits: What African Actors Make of the New Multipolarity

Africa is entering a new era of multipolarity, with global powers competing to become key partners to the continent. This study analyses the different facets of multipolarity and how African actors respond to both opportunities and constraints arising from the growing interest of foreign actors.

doi:10.18449/2025MTA-WP21

• Zum Volltext (PDF) | 2,0 MB

• Christine Hackenesch
• Godfred Bonnah Nkansah

African Youth and the Future of Democracy

With African youth at the heart of political change, this study draws on Afrobarometer data from 41 countries to examine how the youth bulge, urbanization, and social media use shape young Africans’ support for democracy, voting behavior, and protest participation.

doi:10.18449/2025MTA-WP20

• Zum Volltext (PDF) | 1,1 MB

• Christine Hackenesch
• Lena Gutheil
• Tobias Heidland
• Emmanuel Nshakira-Rukundo
• Rainer Schweickert
• Denis M. Tull

Megatrends and the Future of Democracy in Africa. How Do the Youth Bulge, Urbanization and Digitalization Shape African Politics?

Africa’s future will be young, urban and digital, but will it be more democratic? This Working Paper explores how age, urbanization and access to social media shape African citizens’ political attitudes, their willingness to participate in democratic institutions, and forms of collective action.

doi:10.18449/2025MTA-WP16

• Zum Volltext (PDF) | 1,2 MB

• Christine Hackenesch
• Julia Bader

Pragmatic, Strategic and Wide-Reaching: The CCP’s Party Diplomacy in Africa

This policy brief analyses recent patterns and motives of China’s party diplomacy in Africa. It finds that the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP-ID) maintains close ties with the main ruling parties in some countries in the South and East of the continent as well as a broad range of parties in countries in North Africa. 

doi:10.18449/2024MTA-PB29

• Zum Volltext (PDF) | 483 KB

• Hangwei Li
• Christine Hackenesch

FOCAC 2024: Abkehr von großen Infrastrukturprojekten, hin zu China als normative Macht

• Englisch

Der FOCAC-Aktionsplan für Peking (2025-2027) enthält konkrete Ziele für die Beziehungen zwischen China und Afrika. Welche aktuellen Trends prägen diese Partnerschaft, und welche Auswirkungen könnten sie auf die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Europa und Afrika haben?

Joint Futures: Ideas for Germany’s Africa Policy

What does it mean to design a sustainable and effective Africa policy? How can Germany develop and rethink its relations with Africa? We addressed these questions in a dedicated blog series between September 2023 and February 2024: Joint Futures. This publication brings together all the contributions.

doi:10.18449/2024MTA-WP12

• Zum Volltext (PDF) | 3,9 MB