Can China Protect Its Red Sea Investments Without Taking Sides?
July 31st, 2026
Via The Africa Report, a look at how – from Port Sudan to Egypt’s Suez Canal Economic Zone – Beijing’s expanding footprint is reshaping one of the world’s most strategic maritime corridors. But analysts say its growing economic clout is making political neutrality increasingly difficult to sustain. Few waterways are as strategically important or as […]
Read more »The Soda War: How a Coca Cola, Pepsi, and M&M Ingredient is Fueling Conflict in Sudan
April 10th, 2026
Via The Africa Report, commentary on how gum arabic – the ingredient that puts the gloss in Coke, Pepsi and M&Ms – is fuelling the conflict in Sudan In Sudan, in the savannahs of Kordofan and Darfur, millions of families depend on the acacia tree for their livelihood. They score its bark and collect the […]
Read more »The UAE’s Role in the Sudanese Civil War
November 10th, 2025
Via Geopolitical Futures, commentary on UAE’s interests in Sudan: Sudan is an unviable country because it is home to 570 tribes, 57 ethnic groups and nearly 60 separatist movements. Immediately after its independence in 1956, the southern part of the country took up arms against the government in Khartoum to protest economic deprivation, gross political […]
Read more »Are Emirati Petrodollars Really a Good Deal for Africa?
October 13th, 2025
Via The Africa Report, commentary on whether Emirati petrodollars really are a good deal for Africa? Logistics, energy, minerals – the United Arab Emirates has become one of Africa’s leading foreign investors, behind the European Union and China. The charge has drawn the occasional accusation of neo-colonial practice. Senegal’s prime minister, Ousmane Sonko, hopes that a […]
Read more »Syria and UAE’s DP World Ink $800M Deal for Port Development
May 19th, 2025
Via Middle East Monitor, a report on an agreement between Syria and UAE’s DP World for port development: The Syrian government and DP World signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) worth $800 million to develop Syria’s port of Tartous, Syrian state news agency SANA said today, after the lifting of US sanctions cleared the way for the deal, Reuters reports. The […]
Read more »Sudan’s World War
May 16th, 2025
Via Sidecar, commentary on the ongoing war in Sudan: The 15 April marked the two-year anniversary of a civil war in Sudan that has left tens of thousands dead and millions displaced. I published an essay in Sidecar, ‘Gunshots in Khartoum’, two days after the war began, which tried to trace its emergent lineaments. The conflict […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.