China’s Relations with Africa: A New Era of Strategic Engagement
No.2(2026)
This review essay critically engages with the monograph China’s Relations with Africa: A New Era of Strategic Engagement by David H. Shinn and Joshua Eisenman (2023). The essay situates the book within contemporary debates on China–Africa relations, great-power competition, and the geopolitics of the Global South. It evaluates the book’s main arguments, empirical contributions, and analytical strengths, while also identifying key limitations related to the predominance of a bilateral analytical framework. Particular attention is paid to the absence of a systematic triangulary perspective involving China, the United States, and France in Sub-Saharan Africa. The review essay argues that this gap opens important avenues for further comparative and methodologically innovative research, especially through the application of configurational approaches such as fsQCA.
China–Africa relations; Strategic competition; Great-power rivalry; Sub-Saharan Africa; Triangulary diplomacy
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