Africa is taking on increasing geostrategic importance in the evolving global order. The dispersion of power away from a hegemonic, Western core, heightened geopolitical tensions, and growing contestation over values have brought to the fore questions about the constitution of this order and the role of various actors in shaping it. Traditionally, discourse about Africa’s role in global politics has tended to treat the continent as a passive actor— a subject of external agendas, processes, and events rather than an autonomous agent. In recent years, however, a growing number of African leaders and citizens have challenged long-held tropes of peripherality and deficiency, instead leveraging Africa’s strategic assets and asserting African agency in the quest for greater autonomy in global affairs.

Africa’s positioning, history, capabilities, and material attributes interact with broader transformative forces to determine its “actorness” and “agency” in the global arena. Actorness—the capacity to behave actively and deliberately in relation to other actors in the international system—has both tangible and intangible dimensions, including autonomy, presence, cohesion, and capabilities. A related concept, agency, refers to an actor’s capability to influence other actors, reshape social structures, and shape the processes in which it engages.

Africa’s actorness has been shaped by external transformations and encounters—such as transatlantic slavery, colonialism, and the Cold War—and megatrends like climate change, demographic change, urbanization, and digitalization, as well as endogenous political and economic shifts on the continent. In a world in flux, Africa, as a collective entity, is increasingly shedding long-held perceptions and narratives that have relegated it to the margins as a passive rule-taker.

Africa possesses significant strategic assets: abundant natural resources, a central geographic position, an expanding consumer base for global goods and services, and a youthful population engaging in dynamic, growing economies. Africa holds approximately 30% of the world’s critical mineral reserves, including cobalt, lithium, and copper, which are essential for the global green energy transition. Additionally, the near-term growth outlook remains positive, with real GDP growth expected to reach 4.1% in 2025 and 4.4% in 2026, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB). This growth is projected to surpass the global average, positioning Africa as the second-fastest-growing region after Asia.

Diversification of Security Partnerships

African countries are increasingly asserting their sovereignty across multiple domains. In the security sphere, many recognize the imperative of diversifying partnerships in a multipolar world, moving beyond binary choices between Western and non-Western actors.

Kenya, for example, maintains close security cooperation with the US and UK while also deepening ties with Türkiye and the Gulf states on counterterrorism and the development of its defence industry. Egypt balances its longstanding US military aid with Russian arms purchases and Chinese defence systems, while South Africa leverages its BRICS membership alongside its traditional economic ties with Western countries. These countries illustrate genuine diversification, forging new partnerships without severing existing ones to maximize their strategic options while avoiding overdependence on any single partner.

The Sahel, however, presents a more radical geopolitical realignment. Growing anti-Western sentiment—fueled by the perceived failure of externally-led security models to curb jihadist violence and instability has triggered dramatic shifts. In Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, military juntas that seized power in a wave of coups since 2020 have rejected Western-dominated security paradigms and interventions, leading to the expulsion of French troops from their territories, the withdrawal of US forces from Niger, and the termination of the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA). In 2023, they formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) to promote African-owned collective security and greater operational autonomy.

As part of their diversification, the AES have embraced Russia as an alternative security partner, motivated by the short-term successes of Russian mercenaries in bolstering regime security. However, this realignment risks creating new dependencies and undermining these regimes’ legitimacy in the long term. For instance, the security-for-resource barter model which has seen Sahelian states grant Russia mining concessions in exchange for security assistance may constrain future policy autonomy and entangle regimes in long-term financial obligations to Russian interests.

The AES’s formation can also be perceived as a counterweight to the subregional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), signaling major shifts in the region’s political and security landscape. In early 2024, the three AES members formally withdrew from ECOWAS, citing “illegal and inhumane” sanctions, invasion threats, and insufficient anti-terrorism support. The Sahelian states have also decried what they perceive as unwelcome Western—particularly French—influence over ECOWAS, which they believed undermined their sovereignty.

More broadly, ECOWAS itself has also come under criticism for its inconsistent responses to unconstitutional changes of government. ECOWAS has condemned military coups while overlooking “constitutional coups,” such as in Togo, where a 2024 constitutional revision abolished direct presidential elections in favor of a parliamentary system with no term limits for the executive.

Overall, the establishment of the AES and the resulting fragmentation of West Africa’s regional security architecture risk eroding ECOWAS’s credibility as a pillar of the African Peace and Security Architecture. Moreover, the AES’s emphasis on security and sovereignty reflects the privileging of militarism and securitized approaches at the expense of democratic governance and civilian rule.

Leveraging Global Competition and Reasserting Sovereignty

African countries are also asserting their sovereignty over natural resources. Africa’s marginal contribution to global trade—less than 3%—is compounded by commodity dependence, low levels of structural transformation, and regulatory and operational constraints. However, African countries are increasingly leveraging critical minerals and other key resources to negotiate better terms, promote local value addition, facilitate technology transfer, and create jobs. By capitalizing on the surge in global demand for critical minerals—and the intensifying competition among major powers to dominate supply chains—many are pursuing resource sovereignty through stricter extraction regulations and greater state control over the extractive sector.

This trend has taken various forms. AES member states have adopted new national mining codes with stricter regulations and increased taxation. Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have implemented policies requiring the local processing of critical minerals such as lithium and cobalt prior to export. Ghana has enacted a new law barring foreign entities—whether new or existing—from participating in its domestic gold market; the newly established Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) acts as the sole authorized purchaser, vendor, and exporter. Countries are also accelerating renewable energy investments, particularly in solar and green hydrogen.

On the digital front, governments are adopting data localization laws and supporting African tech startups to enhance their digital sovereignty and build local capacity. Nonetheless, these ambitions remain constrained by continued reliance on foreign platforms and capital.

Africa’s renewed focus on resource management complements regional integration initiatives like the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Expected to become the world’s largest free-trade area, the AfCFTA is projected to increase intra-African trade by up to 45% by 2045 and boost Africa’s exports to the rest of the world by 32% by 2035. It is also envisaged to promote economic diversification, moving Africa away from a neocolonial model focused on resource extraction toward value-added manufacturing and service sectors like agrifood, automotive, pharmaceuticals, and logistics. A unified continental market and harmonized regulatory environment are also anticipated to attract significantly higher levels of foreign direct investment, bringing in new capital, technology, and skills essential for economic growth and poverty reduction.

However, the AfCFTA’s progress faces a significant obstacle: weak commitment to the Protocol on Free Movement of Persons among member states. This limits the agreement’s transformative potential, as integrated markets require not only the free flow of goods but also the free movement of labor and skills.

A Shifting Global Aid Landscape as a Wake-Up Call

The past year has seen drastic changes in the global aid landscape driven by reductions in official development assistance by the US and several European donors , including Germany, France, and the UK. These changes have catalyzed African countries to shift policies and mobilize domestic resources to reduce their reliance on foreign aid. Many have sought to mobilize more resources domestically, including by improving tax systems and reforming public financial management. At the same time, many are deepening engagement with nontraditional donors like China, Türkiye, and the Gulf states while leveraging private capital flows, remittances, and financial innovations like diaspora bonds and public-private partnerships (PPPs) to fund large-scale infrastructure and industrial projects.

These measures cannot offset the immediate impact of the aid cuts, particularly in health, education, and humanitarian aid. However, many analysts and policymakers contend that in the long term, the aid cuts could propel African countries toward greater self-sufficiency, ownership, and accountability.

Africa’s Role as a Co-constitutive Actor in Global Politics

Africa’s growing assertion of agency and structural power is also increasingly discernible in multilateral forums, where African countries are advocating for more inclusive, equitable representation and taking the lead in high-level debates on climate action, reform of global governance institutions and the international financial architecture, and financing for development.

At the UN Security Council, African countries have continued to push for greater representation and a stronger collective voice. The A3—Africa’s three elected nonpermanent members of the council—have enhanced coordination to influence both African and non-African agenda items, ensuring African perspectives are reflected in the council’s deliberations. Hence, through joint statements, coordinated voting, and alignment with the African Union Peace and Security Council (AUPSC), the A3 have become an increasingly cohesive diplomatic bloc.

Similarly, within the G20, which will hold its first-ever summit on African soil in South Africa in 2025, the chosen theme of “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability” echoes core priorities of the AU’s Agenda 2063 and the continent’s broader aspirations for sustainable development and a stronger voice for the Global South. The African Union’s formal inclusion in the G20 in 2023 transformed Africa’s role from mere observer to active participant, underscoring the continent’s growing leadership and agency in global governance

In sum, while Africa continues to face internal challenges with governance, economic vulnerabilities, and widespread instability and armed conflict, its leaders and citizens are recalibrating their foreign policy approaches to assert the continent’s agency in an emergent multipolar order. By leveraging their strategic assets, harnessing their collective bargaining power, and coordinating in multilateral forums, African countries are positioning the continent as a co-constitutive actor in global politics and a pivotal player in the 21st century.