Leaders from Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda officially launched the East Africa Exchange early last month. In an email interview, Jendayi Frazer, managing partner of the East Africa Exchange and director of the Center for International Policy and Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University, discussed the East Africa Exchange’s role in improving farmers’ market access. WPR: How will the exchange serve as an interface between producers on the ground and emerging East African markets? Jendayi Frazer: The East African agricultural marketplace is characterized by information asymmetry, non-standardized products and high post-harvest losses. The East Africa Exchange (EAX) has developed a full set [...]
World Politics Review’s Maria Savel had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Javier Solana regarding the European Union’s relations with China, ASEAN and Asia as a whole. Dr. Solana is president of the ESADE Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics and previously served as the European Union high representative for the common foreign and security policy, NATO secretary-general and Spanish foreign minister. The following is a condensed version of their conversation. World Politics Review: Germany-China ties indicate a lot of the fault lines in the European Union and its approach to China in terms of balancing national and European interests. [...]
Last week, Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida met with his Central Asian counterparts in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, as part of the fifth Central Asia Plus Japan (CAPJ) Dialogue. Initiated in 2004, the dialogue has served as the foundation for recent ties between Tokyo and five countries in Central Asia: Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. This year’s meeting focused on enhancing economic cooperation in the agricultural and energy sectors, while also discussing potential security collaboration. Prior to the CAPJ Dialogue, Japan channeled its engagement with the region through its so-called Silk Road Diplomacy, which it launched in 1997 to [...]
