Angola in the international arena – Foreigners’ “energy security” first?

Abstract

In the context of the research project “Sociedade Civil e Política em Angola”, this article considers forces at work from outside Angola, whose governance and economy have been “de-nationalised” for a long time. The authors first look back at their contributions to project’s initial phases. They then focus on the ensuing period until 2023, which saw Angola pushed yet more deeply into a corporate-led world system, chiefly in the name of outsiders’ “energy security”. The results are yet deeper disadvantages, and discontent, among most Angolans. Looking ahead the authors note ways by which civil activists, journalists and scholars within and outside Angola can build on earlier advances to renounce economic dead-ends and disabled democracy where fossil fuel extraction dominates under the ever-larger shadow of climate catastrophe.