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Stephen Chan

Professor of World Politics, SOAS, University of London

Stephen Chan was awarded an OBE for "services to Africa and higher education" in the summer of 2010, alongside receiving the 2010 Eminent Scholar in Global Development award of the International Studies Association.

Professor Chan has published 27 books on international relations and more than 200 articles and reviews in the academic and specialist press, as well as over 100 journalistic feature articles. His books include Robert Mugabe: A Life of Power and Violence, Kaunda and Southern Africa: Image and Reality in Foreign Policy, and Citizen of Africa: Conversations with Morgan Tsvangirai. His most recent work is The End of Certainty: Towards a New Internationalism.

He participated in the transition to independence of Zimbabwe, the reconstruction of Uganda after the fall of Idi Amin, and also advised and trained government ministries in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Kenya. He established a consortium that trained the Eritrean Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately before and after independence in 1993. He was also part of a consortium that trained the parliamentarians and ministers of post-Dergue Ethiopia from 1998-9. From 2006-7 he was a member of the Africa-China-US Trilateral Dialogue, an effort to establish a common set of principles to help govern the emerging trade wars involving the three continents.

Cyril Ramaphosa prepares to confront South Africa's bleak future

Dec 20, 2017 17:29 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics

Among all the remarkable turns in African politics this year, one of the most momentous was Decembers ANC party congress in South Africa, where the party chose a new president: Cyril Ramaphosa, who narrowly bested...

Global Geopolitics Series

Western leaders take their eyes off Africa at just the wrong moment

Jun 01, 2017 12:42 pm UTC| Insights & Views

Almost none of the Western worlds leaders have paid much attention to Africa in recent months. One exception was Frances newly-elected president, Emmanuel Macron, who visited Mali shortly after his inauguration. His trip...

Jacob Zuma's brazen venality may be exhausting even his ANC allies

Apr 03, 2017 13:08 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics

After months of trying, South Africas President Zuma has at last decisively fired his finance minister, Pravin Gordhan. The move was met with huge disquiet within the ANC, and a predictably sharp drop in the value of the...

From Gabon to Zimbabwe, African presidents are under siege

Sep 03, 2016 10:05 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics Economy

Its sometimes democracy as we know it albeit with twists and turns but there is certainly a new appetite for political pluralism developing in Africa. This sometimes leads not only to change, but to deep division. In...

Zimbabwe's finance minister makes a doomed pitch to London's big businesses

Jul 05, 2016 18:03 pm UTC| Insights & Views Business

As British politics descended into a post-EU referendum melee of opportunism, betrayal, resignations, and votes of no confidence, the UK was in no position to lecture others on good governance. Fitting then, perhaps, that...

Economy

Interest rates: the ugly dilemma facing Europe’s central banks – and why it’s a mistake to cut too soon

Central banks in Europe are discovering an old dilemma: when they lower interest rates because inflation is slowing down, its likely to weaken their currencies. This in turn may delay the fall in inflation towards their...

Europe is still in short-term crisis mode over Ukraine and lacks a vision for its post-war identity

Some believe that the war in Ukraine has fundamentally changed Europe, giving birth to a different kind of European order. That is, it appears to be driving structural shifts in the way Europe is run and organised that...

Mortgage prisoners: regulatory changes and low credit scores have left thousands trapped in a cycle of high payments

There are 8.5 million households in the UK who own a home with a residential mortgage, often with fixed interest rates from two to five years. Usually, when that mortgage deal ends, the borrower will move to another deal...

What should you do if you can’t pay your rent or mortgage?

The cost of living crisis is making it difficult for many people to pay their bills, including housing costs. Private sector rents have increased by an average 9% over the year to February 2024, and rising interest rates...

Reducing energy demand and improving efficiency will help prevent the next gas crisis

Gas prices have relaxed, Europe has come out of the winter with record gas storage levels and a surfeit of liquefied natural gas is set to reach the shores of Europe over the coming years. Many commentators are hopeful...

Politics

Gabon: post-coup dialogue has mapped out path to democracy – now military leaders must act

At the end of April 2024, a long and peaceful process of national dialogue in Gabon between the military junta, presided over by coup leader General Brice Oligui Nguema, and civil society, represented by 580 civilians,...

How German media attention idealises female Ukrainian refugees

According to the latest available data, around 3.7 million Ukrainians are internally displaced, while nearly 6.5 million have registered as refugees globally. With 1.13 million, Germany has taken in the largest...

Over 26 million South Africans get a social grant. Fear of losing the payment used to be a reason to vote for the ANC, but no longer – study

Social grants to reduce poverty feature prominently in the campaign promises of political parties in South Africas 2024 national and provincial general elections, set for 29 May. The countrys social grants system is one...

Donald Trump Allegedly Offers Oil Execs a Deal to Scrap EV Incentives for $1B Donation

Former President Donald Trump reportedly proposed a $1 billion deal to oil executives, offering to end electric vehicle (EV) subsidies in return for campaign funding, according to The Washington Post. This move underscores...

US Supreme Court upended decades of precedent in 2022 by allowing voters to vote with gerrymandered maps instead of fixing the congressional districts first

For the 2022 midterm elections, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Alabama to use congressional districts that violated the law and diluted the voting power of Black citizens. A 5-4 vote by the Supreme Court in February...

Science

Is dark matter’s main rival theory dead? There’s bad news from the Cassini spacecraft and other recent tests

One of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics today is that the forces in galaxies do not seem to add up. Galaxies rotate much faster than predicted by applying Newtons law of gravity to their visible matter, despite those...

Why are algorithms called algorithms? A brief history of the Persian polymath you’ve likely never heard of

Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without...

IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects

About a trillion tiny particles called neutrinos pass through you every second. Created during the Big Bang, these relic neutrinos exist throughout the entire universe, but they cant harm you. In fact, only one of them is...

The Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future, and NASA is calling on private companies for backup

A critical NASA mission in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars Sample Return, is in trouble. Its budget has ballooned from US$5 billion to over $11 billion, and the sample return date may slip from the end of this...

Dark matter: our new experiment aims to turn the ghostly substance into actual light

A ghost is haunting our universe. This has been known in astronomy and cosmology for decades. Observations suggest that about 85% of all the matter in the universe is mysterious and invisible. These two qualities are...

Technology

Shiba Inu Burn Rate Skyrockets 579%, 9.83 Million Tokens Burned in One Day

Shiba Inus burn rate surged by 579% in the past 24 hours, destroying 9.83 million tokens, according to Shibburn. The significant increase in token burns has caught the markets attention, with substantial transactions from...

Tesla Cybertruck Trails Ford F-150 Lightning in Sales as Q1 Figures Disappoint Wall Street

New registration data reveals that the Tesla Cybertruck ranked second to the Ford F-150 Lightning in March. Meanwhile, Teslas Q1 sales missed Wall Street expectations, marking the first year-over-year quarterly decline...

Bitcoin Developers Tease Major Trigger for Next Bull Run: Programmability Upgrade

Bitcoin developers suggest enabling programmability on the blockchain could be the key trigger for the next bull run, following the SECs approval of spot Bitcoin ETF trading and the BTC halving. Developers Eye...

Top 3 Altcoins to Watch This Week: SOL, FTM, and LINK Set for Growth

This week, market experts spotlight Solana (SOL), Fantom (FTM), and Chainlink (LINK) as top altcoins to watch, highlighting their unique strengths and recent performance amid unusual market patterns. Solana Overcomes...

Ripple Warns: Math Prof Predicts Quantum Threat to Blockchain, Urges Crypto Key Overhaul

Ripple recently highlighted a warning from Professor Massimiliano Sala, urging the crypto industry to replace current public-key cryptosystems due to vulnerabilities exposed by advancing quantum technology. Professor...