PUBLICATIONS

The 2013 Russian Foreign Policy Concept towards Africa promulgated “mutually beneficial trade” and “settling… regional conflicts.” This paper discusses inconsistencies in Russia’s foreign policy by examining four cases: the Central African Republic, Egypt, Libya, and South Africa. Due to Russia’s economic limitations, quasi-state actors such as Yevgeny Prigozhin and Gazprom enable Moscow’s presence on the continent. Overall, Russia’s involvement asymmetrically benefits Russia’s national and private sector’s agenda over these African nations. Russia’s policy is stunting African economic growth and weakening governance across the continent.

Despite the billions of dollars in revenue generated by multinationals in the chocolate industry, many cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana live below the poverty line. The Ivorian and Ghanaian governments’ joint program to implement a new premium, called the Living Income Differential (LID), to cocoa prices is intended as poverty relief. Although LID has not produced as many benefits as expected, the collective action in its applications and enforcement along with its potential to push chocolate companies to properly contribute to increased incomes for cocoa farmers make it an initiative worth keeping and improving.