Welcome to the Policy People Podcast. In this conversation, I explore the transformation that is placing Africans at the heart of Africa policy with Jean Claude Abeck. We discuss African identity and the victim narrative, accountability as a means of achieving self-determination, the African diaspora as the continent’s ‘Fifth Region’, pan-Africanism and the vision of the Africa Union, the challenges in promoting Afrocentrism in Washington DC, renewed great power competition on the continent, Africa’s pandemic response and the danger foreign COVID aid poses to sovereignty, conflicts in Cameroon and Ethiopia, how African think tanks interface with their Western counterparts, the scholar-practitioner divide in policy and many more topics.
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Jean Claude Abeck is the President and CEO of the Africa Center for Strategic Progress. Jean Claude previously was a researcher at Africa Center for Strategic Studies and the National Nuclear Security Administration in Washington DC. Originally from Cameroon, Jean Claude graduated with a Masters in Terrorism and Security from American University and is now completing his Ph.D. thesis on US-Africa relations at Howard University. He also serves as a Sargeant in the United States Air Force where he is a transportation specialist. You can connect with Jean Claude on LinkedIn or discover his think tank’s work at acstrap.org or follow their official account on Twitter at the handle @AFRICACENTERFO1.
Show notes:
Dan Dunham’s report for Africa Center for Strategic Progress: Principles for Independence: Maintaining African Autonomy in the Age of COVID-19
The views and opinions expressed or implied in this interview are those Jean Claude Abeck and should not be construed as carrying the official sanction of the Department of Defense, Air Force, Space Force, Air Education and Training Command, Air University, or other agencies or departments of the US government or their international equivalents.
Afrocentric Africa Policy with Jean Claude Abeck