Agenda 2063 and Its Implications for Africa’s Soft Power

Abstract

Africa has struggled to counteract the negative images (ranging from diseases to war, terrorism, poverty, and crime) that it evokes in the eyes of the global audience. This has punctured Africa's soft power potential and undermined its influence in the global arena, creating the need for the development of a strong and acceptable normative and strategic framework. In this regard, Agenda 2063's strong commitment to the African Renaissance and a different and better Africa is critical. The article thus examines the potential of Agenda 2063's Aspirations 3, 4, and 5 to enhance the continent's soft power and boost its standing in the international system.

Agenda 2063 and the Feasibility of Sustainable Development in Africa: Any Silver Bullet?

“…Notwithstanding the overall limited success of the OAU in motorizing African development, it made some serious efforts towards African development. Such efforts would include the Monrovia Declaration of 1979; the design and adoption of the Lagos Plan of Action at the OAU Extraordinary Summit in Lagos, Nigeria in 1980, as well as the Final Act of Lagos and the Abuja Treaty of 1991 (De Melo et al, 2018;Tella, 2018). The OAU was equally supportive of regional economic communities (RECs) and encouraged the formation of additional RECs to cover all the regions of the continent.…”

South Africa's engagement with Russia in the era of the “new dawn”

“…The demise of the USSR (in the year 1991) and the fall of the Berlin Wall (in the year 1989) signalled the end of the contestation between communism and capitalism. This contemporary international political climate introduced the new multipolar system (Tella, 2018). The system flagged increased political freedom and access for states to participate in international political and socio‐economic dimensions by looking into their capabilities rather through economic ideologies.…”

“…The system flagged increased political freedom and access for states to participate in international political and socio‐economic dimensions by looking into their capabilities rather through economic ideologies. As a result, the fall of the Berlin Wall also ended the reliance on the US and USSR dictated worldviews (Besada, 2013; Tella, 2018).…”

“…ism. This contemporary international political climate introduced the new multipolar system (Tella, 2018). The system flagged increased political freedom and access for states to participate in international political and socio-economic dimensions by looking into their capabilities rather through economic ideologies.…”

“…Pretoria (administrative capital of South Africa) has strategically positioned itself with emerging powers in opposition to the traditional big powers in the international political and economic system such as the United States of America (hereafter referred to as the US). As opined by Tella (2018), South Africa's engagement in BRICS entails an opportunity for economic transformation retrenched in line with neoliberalism and the unilateral political gain as South Africa is the second largest economy in Africa after Nigeria. Thus, the fundamental weaknesses of the stubborn colonialist South African state cannot be delinked from the downside of liberalism that is forcefully championed by the West.…”