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This paper attempts to reconceptualise from an historical perspective South Africa's regional political economy. Adopting a broadly materialist approach, this paper illustrates how South Africa's relationship with the region can be understood as a system of accumulation based on what may be called a government–business–media (GBM) complex. The analysis follows a critical rewriting of South Africa's regional relations until the attainment of democracy, as seen through the concept of the GBM complex. By so doing, this paper seeks to lay the foundations for an alternative understanding of South Africa's political economy, but also aims to contribute to the literature on, and theorisation of, 'complexes'.

Introducing AFRICOM Expansion in Africa / Tshepo Gwatiwa and Justin van der Merwe -- Expanding US Africa Command: Reintegrating Africa within the US's System of Accumulation / Justin van der Merwe -- Multilateral Diplomacy in the Formation of US Africa Command: Reflections on US Africa Policy and Engagement from Bush through Obama, 2000-2016 / Michael A. Battle -- The Genesis and Origins of AFRICOM / William M. Wyatt -- AFRICOM'S Military Base in Djibouti: a History of Its Advancement / Degan Sun and Yahia H. Zoubir -- Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance in the Expansion of AFRICOM: Africa in America's -- "Panopticon" / Tshepo Gwatiwa -- Security, Circulation and Biopolitics: US Africa Command's Response to Ebola / Catriona Gold -- The Economic and Business Side of US AFRICOM in Africa: Governments, Land Lease, Aid, Corporations and Military Expansion in Djibouti / Ditabeng Mokoena and Tshepo Gwatiwa -- The US Africa Command and [Under]Development in Africa: an Appraisal of the USA's Securitization of Development in Africa / Khayalandile Lwando Mthamo -- Agenda-Setting or Reinforcement? The African Media's Reporting and its Impact on AFRICOM's Soft Power / Oluwaseun Tella -- Conclusion - Imprinting Infrastructural and Affective Labour in Africa / Justin van der Merwe.

This book discusses the systematic expansion of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) across the continent of Africa. This book posits that AFRICOM expansion in Africa is part of a broader system of accumulation based on a government-business-media (GBM) complex. Applying the concept at both structural and descriptive levels, the GBM complex is a function of the synergy between the state's quest for power, businesses' need for expansion, and the informational and hegemonic functions of media actors. The United States' GBM complex in Africa is supported--and in some locations spearheaded--by its military, with dispossessing effects on local actors. Drawing from African case studies, analytical accounts and empirical case studies, this book explores AFRICOM's role within this broader strategy. The volume maps both the methods and the scope of this expansion, as well as local resistance to this process, and comprises perspectives from the five regions of Africa, key sub-regional organizations and voices from Africa's regional hegemons. This book will be of much interest to students of security studies, strategic studies, African politics and International Relations.

Front Cover; Praise; Half Title; Politics and Development in Contemporary Africa; Title Page; Copyright; Acknowledgements and dedication; About the contributors; Contents; List of acronyms and abbreviations; List of illustrations; -- 1. African assimilation, co-optation, and resistance in the BRICS era; What we know about ideological orientations to the BRICS; 'BRICS from the middle': resisting co-optation and collusion in Africa; Creative responses from below?; Overview and structure of the book; References; Part I: BRICS: Joining the dots across Africa and the periphery