ATLANTIC AFRICA: UNITED STATES, EUROPE, CHINA, RUSSIA Influences with Variable Geometry - A View from the South Pr. Rachid EL Houdaigui

The Great Powers of the Atlantic on the Defensive The strategy of the great Western powers is defensive because the accommodation effort is based on the consolidation of transatlantic solidarity facing the 8strategic threat, which is Russia9, on one hand, and the 8systemic threat, China9 on the other. [...] Furthermore, the path towards a diversified positioning should be based on a national logic, because the fundamental issue is how to find the best balance between a practical management of the interference with the West inherited from the colonial era, on the one hand, and the adhesion to a community of geoeconomic interests, which is the Global South, in the other. [...] The third and final category of issues is related to the implementation of the blue economy and the protection of the marine environment. [...] The cited data are the result of the author9s combined research and calculations 156 AU: the African Integrated Strategy for the Seas and Oceans Horizon-2050 (AIM Strategy); the blue economy within the framework of the AU Agenda 2063; and the African Charter on Maritime Safety, Security and Development. [...] The future of multilateral cooperation hinges on the alignment of actual intentions between the EU and the United States, the levels of commitment and responsibility demonstrated by African countries, and the actions of extra-Atlantic powers.