USAWC Crest

Africa

Publications

  • Slide for Academic Year 2026–27 Annual Estimate of the Strategic Security Environment

    The United States faces a complex and ever-changing global environment. The Annual Estimate of the Strategic Security Environment is designed to guide the collective defense community to research and write about critical national security challenges to prepare the Army for a wide range of potential conflicts and threats.

  • Slide for the Academic Year 2025–26 Annual Estimate of the Strategic Security Environment

    The United States faces a complex and ever-changing global environment. The Annual Estimate of the Strategic Security Environment is designed to guide the collective defense community to research and write about critical national security challenges to help the Army prepare for a wide range of potential conflicts and threats.

  • Opidata #8: The BRICS Summit, China, and the Emerging Illiberal Counter-Order | Dr. R. Evan Ellis

    By Dr. R. Evan Ellis

    The 2024 BRICS summit in Kazan solidified an anti-liberal «counter-order,» challenging the rules-based international system. With its expansion to 23 members, the bloc, financially led by China, seeks to evade global restrictions and advance its agendas, though it faces coordination challenges and diverse objectives among its members.

  • China in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: A New Dynamic in Critical Mineral Procurement

    By Farrell Gregory and Paul J. Milas

    Critical minerals will continue to grow in importance across the globe in the coming decades as technological advancements require greater quantities of these materials. The 2023 US Department of Energy Critical Materials Assessment report listed seven materials as critical in the short term because of their uses for magnets, batteries, and fuel cells: dysprosium, neodymium, gallium, graphite, terbium, iridium, and cobalt.