The presence of major powers and emerging powers in Africa has long provoked a heated debate among academicians. Since the Cold War, we have witnessed a shift from a US-led unipolar world to a multipolar world order, in which some emerging powers such as China and India are poised to play a greater role in US strategic backyards in parts of Africa. Philani Mthembu's China and India's Development Cooperation in Africa echoes this issue and provides us with a unique contribution to the field of development studies. It offers a relevant analysis of China's and India's development strategies in certain African countries. Mthembu focuses on China and India as examples of ‘Southern powers’ in his work due to their significant role in shaping global politics and economies and their extensive development programmes in some African countries.
Providing a complete overview and ranking of African countries in terms of the extent of development cooperation they have received from China and India, the author chooses twenty countries (the top ten and bottom ten recipients) to analyse the determinants of such cooperation. ‘Development cooperation’, a key term used throughout the book, is defined as ‘official transfers of money, goods, and services to developing countries specifically for their economic development and welfare’ (p. 25). Juxtaposing China's and India's strategies between 2000 and 2010, the book sheds light on some key factors that help us understand the motives behind these development programmes. These include strategic and economic interests, humanitarian interests, and the size of the diasporic communities of China and India in the recipient African countries. The pivotal question of the book is why China and India have turned their attention to some African countries in order to offer development cooperation. The author concludes that, while China gives high priority to ‘strategic motivations’, India pursues ‘more economic objectives’ (p. 6). In order to support his argument, Mthembu makes use of realist and liberal theories to explain the roles of strategic and economic determinants, which could be applicable to a number of different contexts and traditions within development studies. To corroborate this stance, the author carries out some empirical and qualitative analyses and indicates that, while China has increased its presence in those African nations that have greater strategic importance, India tends to establish its relations with those African countries that have high economic significance. In the case of China, the ‘military, industrial, and demographic aspects’ of the twenty African countries discussed account for its strategic approach (p. 91). As for India, the author juxtaposes the projects that China and India have launched and funded in the various countries to highlight its economic approach.
While Chapter 1 provides some definitions of key terms used in the book, Chapters 2 and 3 offer a historical overview of China's and India's development cooperation in Africa and introduce key players in both countries. Chapter 4 is devoted to the theoretical foundation of the determinants of development cooperation, and Chapters 5 and 6 introduce the research methodology used for the analysis of the data. Finally, the concluding section encapsulates the main ideas of the book.
At the core of the book lies Mthembu's attempt to differentiate between the ‘emerging powers’ and ‘Southern powers’. The author argues that calling China and India emerging powers ‘does not clarify when they are likely to have completed the process of emergence’. Therefore, they should be referred to as Southern powers, since they have some common ‘principles of the global politics’ and ‘different geostrategic poles’ in the international system (p. 17). Furthermore, the author considers the potential significance of the Southern powers’ role in international organizations and platforms such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Development Assistance Committee (DAC). Casting a fresh perspective on the role of Southern powers in social and welfare development in some developing and underdeveloped countries, the author reiterates that ‘developed countries lose their monopoly on ideas regarding the role of the state, poverty reduction strategies, and economic growth’ (p. 4).
One of the strengths of the book is that the author provides a comparative and empirical analysis of China's and India's development programmes which deepens our understanding of the presence of Southern powers in Africa. Moreover, this timely book presents a comprehensive overview of the evolution of development policy planning which could offer a road map to those countries that seek to increase their influence in Africa for development purposes. However, a minor shortcoming is that the author overlooks Sino-Indian rivalry in Africa. China and India have competed for influence in Africa over the past decades, and it is obvious that their involvement on this continent is different in terms of intent, methods and outcomes. The inclusion of a chapter focusing on these issues more comprehensively, with an eye to China's and India's competitive tendencies in Africa, would have made this book more interesting.
By bringing together discussions on China's and India's development strategies in Africa, Mthembu identifies the patterns of cooperation that could affect bilateral and multilateral relations between developing and developed countries. Furthermore, the book is interdisciplinary in nature and useful for those scholars interested in political economy and development studies.
