L. Fituni, I. Abramova Resource Potential of Africa and Russia's ...

The answers to these questions, of course, lie not in the geological
but rather geopolitical and geoeconomic spheres. The authors postulate
that partnership in the development of the natural resources potentials
may be mutually beneficial for both Russia and Africa.
To put it in a more straightforward and practical way: it may be
expected that Russia and Africa can gain much by sharing their respective
experience and best practices in their efforts to benefit from
the rich natural endowments of their soils.
However, the authors’ hypotheses preclude that an intensive
cooperation in the natural resource sphere may produce a synergetic
effect and accelerate the development in the desired directions of
each of them, provided that both sides would be prepared to look
beyond perceived immediate goals and gains into a middle– to long
term future.
The second approach, naturally, requires determining of the areas
of overlapping interests and feasible interaction, followed by the
in-depth study and understanding thereof. It is obvious, that some
types and areas of cooperation in exploitation of natural resources
may be more productive than other. Moreover, in the authors’ view,
wrongly selected areas of such interaction may turn into a liability,
which may create more areas of tension than benefit for the parties
involved.
While analyzing the respective natural resource potentials of
Russia and Africa, the authors proceed from the general interpretation
of a resource as any entity of limited availability that needs to
be consumed to obtain a benefit from it. They share the basic precept
that purely economic value of a resource is controlled by supply
and demand. At the same time this study goes beyond the limits of
purely economic categories and market determinants. Through the
book the authors repeatedly show that there are many aspects that
cannot be measured in money. That is why the present work, containing
among other elements the assessment of the possible results
of Russian – African interaction in the resource sphere, brings together
the technological, commercial and political aspects.
Another important feature of this study is to research the issue
in dynamics: from the retrospective, through the present to perspec-
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