Reports

Africa confronts a structural rupture, not a cyclical disruption. The fragmentation of the post-1945 multilateral trading order — accelerated by the imposition of more than 2,500 new trade restrictions in 2025, the effective dismantling of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, and the geopolitical shock of Operation Epic Fury in February 2026 — has permanently altered the environment in which African states must pursue development and sovereignty. Any strategic planning premised on the recovery of the pre-2018 rules-based regime is analytically untenable.