Debating Ideas is a new section that aims to reflect the values and editorial ethos of the African Arguments book series, publishing engaged, often radical, scholarship, original and activist writing from within the African continent and beyond. It will offer debates and engagements, contexts and controversies, and reviews and responses flowing from the African Arguments.

Welcome to the first contribution in a 4 piece part series in African Arguments – Debating Ideas on the Foreign Policy of Israel in Africa based on Yotam Gidron’s book Israel in Africa; Security, Migration and InterState Politics from Zed Books

The book tells a story of turmoil in the Middle East, amidst which few have noticed the extent to which Israel has slowly but surely been building alliances on the African continent. Facing a growing international backlash, Israel has had to look beyond its traditional Western allies for support, and many African governments, in turn, have been happy to receive Israeli political support, security assistance, investments, and technology. But what do these relationships mean for Africa, and for wider geopolitics? Yotam’s timely contribution to a missing and overlooked but crucial piece of international relations puzzle helps distil a compartmentalised political science of geography where geopolitical discourses rarely overlap.

Listen to the full book launch from the Royal African Society below.

The book and its launch is a product of the below collective:

The International African Institute (IAI) is hosted at SOAS University of London, and aims to promote the scholarly study of Africa’s history, societies and cultures. The Institute’s principal publications comprise its long established and prestigious journal, Africa; the Journal of African Cultural Studies; the annual Africa Bibliography, and a number of book series. African Arguments  is a series of short books about contemporary Africa and the critical issues and debates surrounding the continent. The books are scholarly and engaged, substantive and topical; they are published in association with the Royal African Society and the World Peace Foundation, Tufts University. The series is published by Zed, where you can order Yotam’s book and distributed by University of Chicago Press in North America we well as via a number of small-scale distributors across the African continent including Blue Weaver in South Africa.

Associated with the book series is Africa’s latest addition to the African Arguments site, Debating Ideas blog which is a new section that aims to reflect the values and editorial ethos of the African Arguments book series, publishing engaged, often radical, scholarship, original and activist writing from within the African continent and beyond. In it we publish debates and engagements, contexts and controversies, and reviews and responses flowing from the African Arguments books. The book series is managed by the International African Institute, hosted at SOAS University of London, the owners of the book series of the same name. It is additionally sponsored by the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University, Boston and edited by Raga Makawi and managed by Stephanie Kitchen, who is also the manging editor of Africa. We are advised in our publishing outlook by the Book Series Editors who include Adam Branch, Alex de Waal, Alcinda Honwana, Ebenezer Obadare and  Carlos Oya.