In October 2019, 43 African leaders gathered in Sochi for the inaugural Russia-Africa Summit. This conference highlighted Russia's reassertion of great power status in Africa and promised to be a new dawn in Moscow's engagement with the continent. In the years that followed, pageantry prevailed over substance. Virtually none of the major investment pledges at the Sochi Summit transpired, Russia's trade with Sub-Saharan Africa languished below that of Turkey and the Wagner Group has failed to achieve decisive success in any of its theatres of operation. Despite these setbacks, African leaders have resisted Western pressure to isolate Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and Moscow has continued to expand its array of partnerships on the continent.
By building on the themes of his new book "Russia in Africa: Resurgent Great Power or Bellicose Pretender?" (Hurst/OUP, 2023), Dr. Samuel Ramani will elucidate Russia's emergence as a "virtual great power" in Africa and provide some insights into what the future might hold for Moscow's influence on the continent.
Dr Samuel Ramani is tutor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford, where he received his doctorate in March 2021, and associate fellow of RUSI (Royal United Services Institute). He is a geo-political commentator, who regularly contributes to media publications such as Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, Newsweek and Al-Monitor, as well as think-tanks such as the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Middle East Institute. He regularly appears on broadcast media outlets such as Al Jazeera English, the BBC World Service, France 24 and CNN International. Dr Ramani is also the author of "Putin's War on Ukraine: Russia's Campaign for Global counter-Revolution", which was published by Hurst in April 2023.
This is the first in a series of talks which King’s College, London have agreed to host on the Society’s behalf. Booking will close 48 hours before the scheduled date for the event, i.e. by 7.00 pm on Tuesday, 3rd October, so that we can notify KCL in advance of the names of those who have booked to attend in-person. GBRS will disseminate the Microsoft Teams link by email to online attendees on Wednesday, 4th October, the day before the talk on Thursday, 5th October.
As with Zoom, those attending the Microsoft Teams meeting will be able to take part in the Q & A session, either by putting questions orally or by the Chat mechanism.
This event will also be attended by KCL staff and students. For GBRS members and non-members booking via the GBRS website, 30 tickets have been allocated for in-person attendees and 40 tickets have been allocated for online attendees. Tickets, particularly for in-person attendance, are likely to be taken up very quickly and so, if you would like to attend in-person, you are encouraged to book early.
It would be helpful if on 5th October you could aim to arrive at the Strand Building between 6.30 pm and (at the latest) 6.50 pm so as to register in good time at reception. KCL will kindly be providing drinks from 6.30 pm on.
KCL are hopeful that they will be able to host the subsequent talks scheduled for 16 and 22 November in a larger room capable of accommodating a larger audience. Details of these events will appear on the website as soon as KCL have confirmed the venue to us.