Following Omar al-Bashir’s attendance at Kenya’s constitutional celebration last month, Francis Kornegay speculates on strategic reasons behind Kenya’s defiance of the ICC’s arrest warrant on the Sudanese president. ‘Could there be a connection between al-Bashir’s visit’ and ‘a regional conflict prevention diplomacy addressing the anticipated referendum on South Sudan self-determination in 2011?’ asks Kornegay.

Francis Kornegay fears for the future of South-South co-operation, following South Africa's exclusion from June's of major emerging economic powers, Brazil, Russia, India and China. South Africa may be a smallish middle-income country by comparison, says Kornegay, but it is still the strategic gateway to and dominant player in Africa's economy, which all four BRIC countries are interested in accessing. South Africa's marginalisation raises issues about how the continent is managing a ‘new scramble’ for Africa, says Kornegay, and suggests that President Zuma will have to readjust his foreign policy to focus as much attention on North-South bridging as on the global South.