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Showing posts from October, 2025

Botswana’s Diamond Dilemma: The Impact of Lab-Grown Diamonds and De Beers’ Sale on the SADC Region

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       Since its inception in 1888, De Beers has maintained a stronghold on the international diamond market through a cartel-like system that controlled supply and kept prices elevated. The longstanding collaboration between De Beers and the Botswana government, through their equally owned venture Debswana, has been a benchmark for resource management and fair distribution of benefits in Africa (Wyk, 2010). However, Anglo American's 2024 announcement to withdraw from De Beers signifies a pivotal change. Experts believe that Anglo's move was influenced by decreasing profit margins and increasing competition from synthetic diamond producers, whose market share expanded from 1% in 2015 to over 15% by 2023 (Shah, 2025; Bain & Company, 2023). This shift prompts concerns about the viability of Botswana's diamond-driven economic model, especially since De Beers has traditionally overseen not just mining but also the marketing, branding, and integration of Botswana'...

Africa and the Emerging Multipolar World Order: Repositioning the Continent through Strategic Diplomacy and Economic Engagement

Author: Oyelayo Daniel Adeyinka is a student of English and International Studies at Osun State University (UNIOSUN). His academic focus extends to literary studies and the intersection of media, diplomacy, and leadership. As an aspiring diplomat and an advocate for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 4, 11, 16, & 17), he is passionate about contributing to international peace, effective communication, and global cooperation. Daniel currently serves as the Academic Coordinator and Assistant General Coordinator of the Deeper Life Campus Fellowship, UNIOSUN Ikire Chapter. Publisher: Fulcrum Analytics. Introduction The global power structure has undergone a significant transformation since the end of the Cold War (1947–1991). The unipolar world order, led and dominated by the United States, has gradually given way to a multipolar international system marked by China's emergence, Russia's re-emergence, and new regional behemoths like India and Brazil. This is largely reshufflin...

The Anatomy of a Hijacking Epidemic

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  The Night Shift Just after midnight, a small red dot flickers off on a map of Johannesburg’s northern suburbs. In a low-lit operations room, a man in a black fleece jacket leans closer to his monitor, watching the signal drop. For him, it’s not panic. It’s protocol. He’s seen this before — the moment when a vehicle’s transponder goes dark, its tracking signal swallowed by silence. He types a quick note into the system: Possible jammer. Initiate chase. Within minutes, a recovery team is in motion — two vehicles, three men, body armor under their jackets, radios hissing in the dark. They speak in shorthand, a dialect of adrenaline and routine. Coordinates, grid squares, engine codes. Each man knows his part, each kilometer a calculation of risk and chance. They are not heroes. They are technicians of crisis — private soldiers in an undeclared war. And somewhere out there, on the other end of that vanished signal, is another South African whose night has just been rewritten. The Sys...