THE SECURITY INSTITUTE FOR GOVERNANCE AND LEADERSHIP IN AFRICA HOSTSDR LISELOTTE ODGAARD FROM THE ROYAL DANISH DEFENCE COLLEGE
By Lt Vuyelwa Mereko & CO Tumelo Seiso
Dr Liselotte Odgaard from the Royal Danish Defence College (RDDC) presented a paper on China’s Policy of Development and Security in East Africa on 22 November 2016, at the Faculty of Military Science (Stellenbosch University, Saldanha). Dr Odgaard was a visiting researcher from 13-23 November 2016 at the Security Institute for Governance and Leadership in Africa (SIGLA), which is a research institute of Stellenbosch University, located at the Faculty of Military Science in Saldanha. Dr Odgaard is an Associate Professor at the RDDC and an expert in international relations, Asia-Pacific security and China studies.
The paper focused on China’s national, economic and strategic interests in East Africa and the extent to which China also promoted common interests in peace and security. Instead of presenting a Western or African perspective on China’s presence, Dr Odgaard presented China’s perspective on its presence; what is China trying to achieve and why is China doing what it is doing. The Chinese’srole in promoting regional order in the eastern part of Africa while advancing its strategic and economic interests was a central theme. Dr Odgaard also discussed how China is incorporating instruments and policies that are already in place such as the United Nations(UN) Peacekeeping policies and the One Belt One Road (OBOR)strategy to promote regional peace and stability in East Africa.
The Chinese’s ability to promote stability and security for the advancement of its economic interests and East African development also became a subject of interest. The key point of China’s approach to the East African region is, according to DrOdgaard, to establish intra-regional economic links and mechanisms to advance growth and stability. This is done through assisting East African governments’existing political, military and economic institutions and addressing socio-economic problems in fragile states to the extent that these are reconcilable with Chinese interests.
Dr Odgaard argued that China is not currently showing interest in becoming an instant military superpower; however, this might be a possibility in the future. She also emphasised that China’s strategy is centred on advancing its economic power without any ideology to sell to the world. This argument is backed by the Chinese’s non-interference strategy in supporting East African governance and the will to uphold sovereignty even where governance is almost non-existent. The Chinese will to negotiate on the basis of a top-down approach even where a governing structure is highly unstable,allowed the Chinese government as the only one of the bigpowers to deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan. China’s defensive military approach also proves as a measure to back the argument that China’s ambition to operate globally is not motivated by military means, but it is mainly focused on national economic growth and advancement. One reason is that China simply does not have the military capabilities to play a global role yet. However, another reason is that China’s current rise is based on focusing on economic growth before military rise can be considered. Consequently, China tends to rely on economic engagement rather than military power as the best means to advance its political and strategic interests. Dr Odgaard referred to the Chinese strategy in East Africa as a multi-purpose strategy which focuses on developing open seas protection, establishing global commercial trade, and promoting a logistics hub for anti-piracy and peacekeeping operations in East Africa.
Dr Odgaard concluded by affirming that China endorsesUNdecisions to intervene if these decisions have been endorsed by regional organizations, because China prefers that local powers decide the fate of themselves and their neighbours rather than leave it to powers with a different history and geographical position. However, China still gives preference to upholding the principle of sovereignty and tends not to vote for UN Security Council resolutions that breach this principle unless proof of aggressions against other states exists. The use of Chinese diplomatic economic assistance to strengthen existing political structures and the non-interference policy coupled with the UN endorsement was also re-emphasised.
During the question and answer session, Dr Odgaard shedlight on China’s intent and investment towards BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and whether or not it intended to remain party to the BRICS, judging from the perceived Chinese global expansion. Here, she highlighted that Russia is more important to China than BRICS as a whole. Another important question was whether the Chinese “moral inclination” gives exact and outlined policies stating how people in the East African communities will benefit from the China-East Africa cooperation. Dr Odgaard answered that such progress was always hard to measure, but gave the example of Chinese infrastructure projects as examples of Chinese policies that had benefited East African countries’ economic development as well as Chinese economic interests.
Research cooperation between the RDDC and SIGLA is ongoing, especially in the maritime and landward domains. For further information about SIGLA and its partners, please visit SIGLA’s website at or contact Prof Francois Vreÿ (the SIGLA Programme Coordinator) at 022-7023106 or via email at .
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