Ansari Africa Center

The Atlantic Council established the Michael S. Ansari Africa Center in September 2009 with a mission to promote strong geopolitical partnerships with African states and to redirect US and European policy priorities towards strengthening economic growth and prosperity on the continent.

The Africa Center provides thought leadership on emerging security, geopolitical, and economic challenges in Africa through congressional testimony, publications, briefings, events, and a robust media presence. The Center assists policymakers in addressing the complex security challenges facing Africa, including the problems of state collapse; humanitarian crises; piracy; the growing nexus between extremism and criminality in West Africa and the Sahel; the ongoing political transitions in North Africa; ongoing challenges in Central and Southern Africa; and the growing impact of Islamist extremism on African polities and economies. Within the context of the Atlantic Council’s work to promote constructive US leadership and engagement in international affairs, the Center supports and collaborates with the public and private sectors in forging practical solutions to challenges and opportunities—particularly economic opportunities—in Africa. The Center seeks to persuade policymakers and the public sector of the strategic importance of Africa while analyzing the efforts of new actors on the continent—including China, India, Brazil and Turkey—and their impact on US and European interests. In its newest initiative, to be launched in 2013, the Center will inform decisions about participating in Africa's economic and commercial opportunities by engaging in a collaborative partnership to create an innovative real-time African Investment Scorecard.

Over the course of the past year, the Africa Center has provided an important platform for assessing and revising US policy toward Sudan and South Sudan and has been at the cutting edge of analysis on the growth of extremism in the Sahel and West Africa as well as the fragile progress being made in Somalia. In addition to ongoing work on these specific geopolitical challenges, the Center’s programming focuses on five policy initiatives: Influencing African Security Policy, African Prosperity, Emerging Economic Powers in Africa, Conversations with African Leaders, and Leaders of Tomorrow.

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

To join the Michael S. Ansari Africa Center mailing list, email africa@acus.org.

NEW LOCATION

The Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East and the Michael S. Ansari Africa Center are located in the Atlantic Council’s Satellite Office at 888 16th Street, NW | 8th Floor | Washington, DC 20005.

J. Peter Pham Discusses Iran-Sudan Link to Arms for Gaza Militants (Fox News Channel)

November 20, 2012

J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, was interviewed by Jenna Lee on the Fox News Channel’s Happening Now in a segment on the Iranian and Sudanese links to missiles and other weapons being smuggled to the terrorist group Hamas and other militants in Gaza.

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J. Peter Pham Discusses the Growing Threat of Africa’s Islamist Groups on Capitol Hill

November 16, 2012

J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, was a featured speaker today on Capitol Hill at a luncheon briefing for Congressional staffers on “The Growing Threat of Islamist Groups in Africa: AQIM, Al-Shabaab, and Boko Haram.”

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J. Peter Pham Interviewed about Mali (National Public Radio)

November 09, 2012

J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, was interviewed by Michele Keleman on northern Mali turning into a terrorist safe haven for today’s edition of the NPR’s All Things Considered.

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Divided Government and America's Bipartisan Africa Policy

J. Peter Pham | November 08, 2012

After a bitterly fought campaign that was the most expensive in history, the American electorate voted to keep the divided government that many told pollsters was responsible for the gridlock that has seriously weakened the United States. President Obama won a second term, albeit by a far closer margin than his historic 2008 election.

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J. Peter Pham Discusses Somalia, Mali (Voice of America)

November 05, 2012

J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, was interviewed by Carol Castiel on the evolving political and security situations in Somalia and Mali for this week’s edition of the Voice of America’s Encounter.

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IntelBrief: Sudanese Hub, Iranian Nexus

November 01, 2012

In the latest in the series of “IntelBriefs” on African security issues being produced by the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center in partnership with the Soufan Group, an international strategic consultancy, Ansari Center Director J. Peter Pham explores the background behind the destruction of an arms factory south of Khartoum last week—an attack which Sudanese officials have blamed on Israel, whose government has refused comment—to Iran’s growing reach in Africa, both as a strategic objective in itself and as a means to funnel arms to Tehran’s allies elsewhere in Africa and the Middle East.

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J. Peter Pham Discusses Mali Intervention on CCTV

October 28, 2012

J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, was interviewed by Daniel Ryntjes for China Central Television (CCTV) News on the prospects for military intervention against Islamist extremists who have taken over the northern half of Mali.

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J. Peter Pham’s Commentary for The National Interest on Argentine Warship Republished in Spanish Translation

October 26, 2012

The commentary which J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, originally penned for The National Interest on Ghana’s continued detention of an Argentine warship on behalf of the latter’s creditors, “Ghana Takes on Argentina,” was translated into Spanish, adapted, and republished as an op-ed by the Friday print edition of La Nación, the second-largest newspaper in the South American country.

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Launch of the Counter-Piracy Task Force Report: Managing the Global Response to Maritime Piracy

October 26, 2012

The Michael S. Ansari Africa Center and Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security launched the Atlantic Council’s Counter-Piracy Task Force (CPTF) report, Managing the Global Response to Maritime Piracy.

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Managing the Global Response to Maritime Piracy

October 26, 2012

The Counter-Piracy Task Force, a collaboration between the Atlantic Council's Michael S. Ansari Africa Center and Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security release its report on "Managing the Global Response to Maritime Piracy."

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