Beyond “Chimerica”: U.S.–China strategic competition and African agency in a disordered world

Abstract

The intensification of strategic competition between the United States and China has become one of the defining dynamics of 21st-century international relations, reshaping patterns of global governance, economic interdependence and geopolitical alignment. While existing scholarship has largely examined this rivalry through the lens of great-power competition, Africa is frequently portrayed as a passive arena in which external actors pursue competing interests. This article challenges that assumption by placing African agency at the center of the analysis. Building on the transition from the 2007 concept of Chimerica by Ferguson and Schularick to an increasingly fragmented and contested international environment, the article argues that the contemporary international system is best understood as a disordered world order characterized by overlapping institutions, selective multilateralism, and negotiated partnerships rather than stable bipolarity or consolidated multipolarity. Employing a qualitative, conceptually driven approach that combines comparative foreign policy analysis with the examination of policy documents and recent scholarly literature, the study develops a theory-building framework linking U.S.–China strategic competition with Africa’s evolving geopolitical position. The text presents three interrelated ideas: First, the decline of Chimerica indicates a wider transformation in international order. Second, Africa’s increasing strategic significance is due not only to its demographic, economic, and resource wealth but also to its growing diplomatic and institutional influence. Third, African states and continental institutions have become active participants in shaping the emerging international order, influencing the strategies, partnerships, and governance practices of competing external powers. To capture this transformation, the concept of order-making agency is introduced, extending existing scholarship on African agency beyond adaptive or reactive behavior toward active participation in constructing the institutional and normative architecture of global governance. The study concludes that understanding contemporary world politics requires moving beyond state-centric analyses of great-power rivalry and recognizing Africa as an increasingly influential actor in negotiating the rules, partnerships and institutions of an evolving international order, within the Global South and beyond.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Frontiers in Political Science, 2026 · DOI ↗