| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
African nations do not often come to mind as primary agents of soft power. Africa's marginalization in the global economy, its own internal conflicts, and the autocratic regimes that ruled many of its countries until the end of the Cold War all limited the cultivation of soft power. Yet the democratization that
swept through the continent in the 1990s sowed the seeds for the current decade's optimistic "African Rising" narrative. Africa is the next frontier of growth, with unsaturated markets, abundant natural resources, and a growing middle class. Once a continent of poverty and war, Africa is now a region of infinite possibilities with many competing suitors. Conflicts persist in places such as the Great Lakes
and the Horn of Africa, but many states boast strong economic growth, albeit with slow improvement
in living standards.
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