Gregor Jaecke (Resident Representative, KAS South Africa) opened the evening by welcoming the scholars, alumni and KAS friends. He highlighted the long-standing KAS scholarship programme in South Africa, which has been running since 1999. In regard of the evening’s topic “Geopolitical rivalries on the African continent and Great Power competition”, Jaecke emphasized that fostering international policy with a special focus of course on South Africa on the African continent is one of the top five priorities for KAS South Africa. When it comes to international policy, the competition for influence on the African continent is an undeniable geopolitical reality. There is an increasing presence of countries like China, Russia, Turkey and India in Africa, exerting their influence both politically and economically.

As a special guest Christian E. Rieck, Associate Professor from University of Potsdam and International Relations specialist, joined the evening and shared valuable insights. Rieck addressed South Africa´s position of non-alignment and its meaning in the context of geopolitical rivalries. His following argument received much approval from the audience:

“Non-alignment – which is really multi alignment – is a rational reaction to multipolarity, but can reduce Western interest in Africa in the long run. To prevent this, African states should overcome the crisis narrative prevalent in the west, instead position themselves as constructive partners for the management of global structural problems”.

In his speech he continued to explain the role of Russia and China on the African continent and came to the conclusion that especially China is a significant geopolitical player while Russia does not really has a determining role on the African continent. When it comes to BRICS enlargement, he stated that BRICS is primarily about the member states´ access to China and the Chinese market, whereas other see it a change for the Global South and especially African countries to become more important and engage in international politics.

Following the excellent presentation of Rieck, a lively discussion took place and the audience agreed that African agency was increasing, but that expanded membership of the BRICS would not automatically enhance the effectiveness or the utility of these bodies. Still, this should help change the common narrative about African states as being crisis-ridden and hopeless. After also discussing Germany´s position in geopolitics, the successful evening came to an end. Participants left with enthusiasm but also lots of new questions, as the geopolitical field is a very complex one.