Kellogg Faculty Fellow Joshua Eisenman has published his third book on China and the developing world. China's Relations with Africa: A New Era of Strategic Engagement was co-authored with former US ambassador to several African countries David Shinn and published by Columbia University Press in August.
The book examines the full scope of contemporary political and security relations between China and Africa, explaining the specific tactics and methods that Beijing uses to build its strategic relations, and contextualizing and interpreting them within China’s larger geostrategy. The authors assert that the Chinese Communist Party's relationships with dozens of African political parties are part of Beijing's sweeping push for influence on the continent, aiming to legitimize its political model and compete with Western values abroad. Drawing on two decades of systematic data and hundreds of surveys and in-person interviews, Eisenman and Shinn shed new light on the state of China-Africa relations today and consider what the future may hold.
In a review of the book, CEO of Afrobarometer Joseph Asunka calls it "thoroughly researched, engaging, enlightening, and provocative." He says further, "it is a must read for people who want to be fully informed about the dynamic and intricate relations between China and Africa – the variety of forms they take, how they evolve, and why they thrive in the vastly different contexts on the continent."
Eisenman is associate professor of politics at the Keough School of Global Affairs and a senior fellow for China studies at the American Foreign Policy Council. His research focuses on the political economy of China's development and its foreign relations with the United States and the developing world, particularly Africa. He holds a PhD in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles.
The Kellogg Institute for International Studies, part of the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, is an interdisciplinary community of scholars and students from across the University and around the globe that promotes research, provides educational opportunities, and builds partnerships throughout the world on the themes of global democracy and integral human development.