This course reviews prospects for ‘development’ on the African continent in light of big power competition, self-serving international economic interests and internal barriers. Major topics to be examined include: UN Millennium development goals; the global economic order; strategies for development; foreign aid and African debt; the emergence of China, India, Russia and Brazil as major actors; the continent’s oil and mineral wealth; ‘free trade’; ‘fair trade’; improving education and alleviating poverty; gender and human rights, domestic political obstacles and regional organizations.
