Ed. by T. Deych, A. Zhukov, O. Kulkova and E. Korendyasov.

M.: Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 2014. 296 p.

The reviewed publication is based on reports delivered at three sections of the XIII International Conference of Africanists "Society and Politics in Africa: Unchanging, Changing, New" (Moscow, May 27-30, 2014): "Russia and Africa in the context of North-South relations and within the framework of BRICS", " Africa and the EU: past, present, and future " and "External Forces in the Greater Horn of Africa: a Comparative analysis of the involvement of Non-regional Powers from the Cold War to the present". This is largely due to the fact that the book is published in English, which makes it accessible to the widest possible range of interested readers. The authors of the articles written on the basis of the reports represent eight countries: in addition to Russia, these are Algeria, Kazakhstan, Canada, San Marino, the United States, France and South Africa. This alone makes the collection a non-trivial and interesting variety of scientific traditions and approaches reflected in it.

The list of responsible editors (they are also the heads of sections at the conference)also draws attention to itself: experienced Africanists, editors of many collective works T. N. Deich and E. N. Korendyasov coexist with young researchers A. E. Zhukov and O. S. Kulkova. It should be noted that the responsible editors managed to solve a fundamentally important task for the success of the book, and the task is especially difficult when it comes to the conference materials, especially its several sections: to find an idea that unites all authors and build a collection around it, giving it structural harmony and meaningful unity. For the authors and editors of the peer-reviewed publication, this idea was a shared belief in the growing role of Africa in world politics (which is reflected in the title of the book). Indeed, each individual article and the collection as a whole strongly suggest that the radical increase in the degree of interconnectedness of political processes and the interdependence of world political actors characteristic of the modern era has led to the final transformation of Africa into one of them. And Africa's role as one of the collective actors of global world politics will continue to grow as international relations become more transnationalized.

The most vivid confirmation of these theses was found in the articles that made up the first section of the book - "Africa: global, regional and local dimensions "(pp. 7-49). At the same time, it is especially important to emphasize that it, like the book as a whole, combines an analysis of the role of Africa in modern world politics as a single "global player" and a view of Africa as a collection of a huge number of states with not always coinciding interests and principled approaches to certain problems. As the book in question suggests, there is no contradiction in this: as a unit of world politics in a global context, Africa appears as a conglomerate of very different states and societies forming it in an intra-continental political context. Moreover, only an analysis based on taking into account both the unity of Africa as a participant in world political processes and the divergent political aspirations of States located on this continent can allow us to fully assess Africa's place in world politics today and what its role will be in it tomorrow.

To the maximum extent, this approach is shown in the article by E. N. Korendyasov " Foreign policy of African states in the XXI century: new opportunities and challenges "(p. 7-16). Considering the current relations of African countries with non-African Powers in two dimensions as relations in which Africa is represented either as a whole (the African Union) or as individual States, the author successfully puts them in the context of the general situation in international relations and global trends in them. The researcher, in particular, notes the transformation of African states into key actors of "resource diplomacy"as a recent phenomenon. He also draws attention to the conceptual changes taking place in the last two decades in the foreign policy of African countries, which are expressed in their desire to move away from the unambiguous orientation towards Western countries, primarily former metropolitan areas, and attempts to make cooperation with non-African partners more equal. Nevertheless, the global situation in world politics, according to E. N. Korendyasov (which is not contradicted by the views of other authors)-

as well as the reviewer), is such that "in general, Africa's position in the world remains unstable, while new trends are making their way with difficulty. This is primarily because the entire system of international relations remains unbalanced" (p. 14).

The remaining sections of the book are devoted to various aspects of relations between African countries (unfortunately, as a rule, generalized, although I would like to see more specific country studies) with the leading powers of the modern world and their associations (the EU, BRICS). In particular, the second section (p.50-126) contains articles dealing with the links between African States and economically developed countries. The condition for including the article in this section was the membership of the non-African Power considered in it in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which is reflected in its title: "OECD Countries and Africa: new approaches". However, this criterion was purely instrumental for the compilers and editors of the collection - as an indicator of the economic development of the relevant state: among the articles in this section, there are no ones that would be devoted specifically to Africa's relations with the OECD. At the same time, five articles examine the relations of African countries with the European Union, and four more - with individual economically developed countries: the United States, Italy, Japan and South Korea.

The issues covered in this section are diverse; perhaps the most detailed are the political aspects of two of them: economic aid to Africa and migration from African countries to Western countries. A number of authors are interested in analyzing how Western countries are trying to modernize both the aid programs themselves and their ideological justification in a situation where in recent years Africa has increasingly heard the voices of representatives of a slow but still recovering civil society, including scientists, about the need for"self-reliance" on the corrupting influence of direct foreign aid on the social morale and work ethic of Africans, on its harmful impact on the prospects for the development of the national economy, on the preservation of true sovereignty by the countries of the continent, etc. (see, for example: [Orjiako, 2001; Aid to Africa..., 2009; Moyo, 2009]). The approach of the authors of the collection, who consider the problem of aid to Africa, is rather cautious: they do not seek to speak unequivocally "for" or "against" it. Indeed, it is impossible not to recognize the presence of a large part of the truth in the reasoning of African (and not only) opponents of aid to Africa. But at the same time, is Africa fully capable of relying on itself for economic development today, even if it is desirable to get rid of aid as an instrument of political pressure on it? My view on this issue coincides with the position of the authors of the collection: assistance to African countries is needed, but only such assistance as contributes to their economic and social development [Bondarenko et al., 2014, pp. 7-8]. In this regard, the article by C. Mularoni and P. Scarpellini (p.71-79) is of particular interest, in which this issue is raised very clearly and considered as thoroughly as possible.

Articles devoted to the impact of migrations from Africa and African diasporas on world politics serve as additional evidence that one of the most important characteristics of the modern world is its postcolonial state, and therefore Africa plays a key role in determining trends in its development. Migrants from the periphery of today's world system, including from Africa, have a significant transformative impact on its center, blurring the boundaries between the center and the periphery. It is no coincidence that in recent years migrations and diasporas have been increasingly discussed and written about in connection with the problem of "global governance" (see, for example: [Global Migration Governance, 2011; Migration and Global Governance, 2011]). The issue of migration is considered in the peer-reviewed collection from the point of view of both host societies (in particular, their attempts to regulate migration flows and integrate migrants into local societies) and sending societies - African ones. A good example is S. I. Poruchikov's article, which examines the political aspects of cooperation between African states and the European Union on such a painful issue for Africa as intellectual migration, i.e. "brain drain" (p.80-91).

The last four sections of the book - more than half of its volume (pp. 127-293) - are articles that examine the relations of African countries with BRICS as an international association and with individual member States. Most attention is paid to Africa's relations with China, the most powerful "new force" on the continent (p.176-238) and, naturally, with Russia (p. 239-273). However, to the credit of the compilers of the collection, they made the picture complete by including articles on all BRICS countries, including the African member of this group - the Republic of South Africa (and on the peculiarity of this country's position in the world).

BRICS itself (p. 163-175), and its place in BRICS - Africa relations (p.289-293). We can say that these parts of the book under review are also a continuation of the international collective monograph edited by T. L. Deich and E. N. Korendyasov, published a year earlier [BRICS-Africa..., 2013].

A great advantage of these sections, in my opinion, is the division of relations of African countries with BRICS as an interstate association and with its members separately, which was already mentioned above. It seems that the ratio between the number of articles on relations between African countries and BRICS and African countries and individual BRICS members was not accidental, but also not accidental: four and eleven (including five articles on the interaction of African countries with China, three with Russia, and one each with Brazil, India, and South Africa). It is obvious that the BRICS as a whole has not yet managed to develop sufficient activity in Africa, has not yet started implementing projects there on its own behalf (as the EU does), and therefore relations, in particular China with African states, are more intense and deeper than the BRICS, of which China is a member.

The BRICS ' prospects in Africa largely depend on how its economic cooperation with the continent's countries will develop. However, the authors of the collection rightly draw attention to the international and political aspect of the very emergence of BRICS in Africa: it is beneficial for Africans to have an alternative to the West, preferably in the person of not one hegemon state (read China), but, in order to reduce the risk of becoming more dependent on it, in the form of a union of states or several states. And this is a real chance for the BRICS to establish their presence on the continent. The whole gamut of subtle and controversial issues facing both African politicians and scientists in connection with changes in political arrangements on and around the African continent, which may lead to the activation of BRICS activities, is conveyed by the title of the article by J. van der Merwe: "The BRICS riddle: the rise of the non-West or hidden sub-imperialism?" (p. 145-162). The same title also clearly reflects the fact that the prospects for BRICS in Africa, and therefore the changes that may occur in connection with it, remain unclear to this day: BRICS is only gaining strength, gaining internal stability, developing principles of interaction between its members, and therefore has not yet seriously begun economic and social development. political establishment in Africa.

The selection of articles that deal with the relations of African states with individual BRICS member countries seems to me uneven: in some of them, the description of facts is not accompanied by a sufficiently deep analysis, while in others, on the contrary, the general reasoning is not supported by a proper amount of factual material. At the same time, the concreteness of the analysis and the originality of the selected angles of the topic are undoubtedly distinguished by the articles of D. Shinn ("Ethiopia and China: relations between two former empires in the twentieth century " (p. 187-199)) and V. A. Usova ("Indian African Politics and the Indian Diaspora: a Risk Assessment" (p.274-281)). T. L. Deutsch ("The role of China in Africa in the XXI century" (p. 176-186)) and E. N. Korendyasov ("Russia returns to Africa" (p.239-246)) highlight the breadth of coverage of the problems and the accuracy of their analysis. In particular, the latter's substantive consideration of the question of why the intentions repeatedly declared by the leaders of both Russia and African states to raise cooperation to a fundamentally different, higher quality level have not yet been realized.

The collection lacks a generalizing conclusion. Nevertheless, his articles, individually and collectively, show that Africa is becoming an increasingly important player in world politics today, as its influence on global political processes becomes both deeper and more multifaceted.

list of literature

Bondarenko, D. M., Nkyabonaki, J., and Mkunde, B. M., The principle of "Self-reliance" by J. K. Nyere-re and the attitude to external assistance in Tanzania in the early 2010s, Afrika: protsessy sotsiokul'turnoy transformatsii, Moscow: Institut Afrika RAS, 2014.

BRICS-Africa: Partnership and Interaction, Moscow: Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2013.

Aid to Africa: Redeemer or Coloniser? Cape Town: Pambazuka Press, 2009.

Global Migration Governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Migration and Global Governance. Cheltenham; Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011.

Moyo D. Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is Another Way for Africa. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009.

Orjiako H. Killing Sub-Saharan Africa with Aid. New York: Nova Science Publishers. 2001.

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