USA, China, and Europe in the Battle for Global Dominance. What about Africa?
The global economy has entered a new era since Donald Trump’s election. The post Cold War consensus of open markets, multilateral trade, and shared growth has given way to a strategic race for economic dominance. At the center of this race stand three power blocs: the United States, China (+BRICS), and Europe (+ Russia). Each pursues a distinct model of capitalism, governance, and influence, shaping supply chains, technology, finance, and geopolitics.
This competition is not a traditional war of territory, but a systemic contest over who sets the rules of global trade, controls critical technologies, finances growth, and shapes the future of the world. A first of its kind since WWII.
The United States: Innovation powerhouse and financial hegemony:
Strengths: The United States remains the world’s most powerful economic actor due to technological leadership (AI, semiconductors, biotech, aerospace), US dollar dominance as the world’s reserve currency, deep capital markets and venture ecosystem and military-economic integration reinforcing geopolitical leverage.
Strategy: The US strategy has shifted from free trade to strategic protectionism reshoring and “friend-shoring” of supply chains, industrial policy through the CHIPS Act and inflation Reduction Act, sanctions and export controls to contain rivals, particularly China, use of the dollar & financial system as geopolitical tools, and recently military demonstration in Venezuela. Weaknesses: Rising public debt, Political polarization, infrastructure gaps, over-reliance on financialization versus industrial production.
Despite these challenges, the US remains the agenda-setter in global finance and technology standards.
China: State capitalism and long-term industrial strategy
Strengths: China’s rise is the most significant economic transformation of the 21st century: The world’s largest manufacturing base, Integrated supply chains, massive infrastructure capacity and strong state coordination between government, banks, and industry.
China has mastered scale economics, enabling it to dominate sectors such as critical minerals refining, solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles, and consumer electronics.
Strategy: China’s approach is long-term, state-driven, and export-oriented: “Made in China 2025” to control strategic industries, BRICS support and Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to expand global influence, RMB internationalization to reduce dollar dependence and heavy investment in AI, green tech, and advanced manufacturing
China competes not only on price, but increasingly on technology and standards.
Weaknesses: Demographic decline, high corporate and local government debt, capital controls limiting financial openness and growing geopolitical pushback from the West. China’s challenge is to transition from an export-led model to a consumption and innovation driven economy without triggering instability.
Europe: Regulatory Power and Normative Influence
Strengths: Europe is often underestimated, yet it remains one of the world’s largest single markets, a leader in regulatory power (“the Brussels effect”), strong in luxury goods, industrial machinery, pharmaceuticals, and green technologies, politically stable with high human capital, but its broad influence is politically declining since last year.
Europe’s real power lies in its ability to set global rules on data protection, competition, environment, and sustainability.
Strategy: Europe’s strategy is defensive and normative: Emphasis on ESG, climate leadership, and digital regulation, strategic autonomy in energy, defense, and key technologies, industrial revival through green transition investments, trade agreements focused on values and standards. But its success will depend on how fast Europeans will recover from the Ukraine war and NATO policy stabilisation.
Weaknesses: Fragmented decision-making, slower innovation cycles, dependence on external energy and defense, lagging in big tech and AI platforms and most important the Europeans have gone mute or missing in action in recent events which are reshaping the world: Gaza, Venezuela, Iran, Great Lakes countries, Sahel, G20 struggles and others.
Europe risks being squeezed and lost between the USA, China & the BRICS, even AFRICA unless it reinvents the geopolitical wheel and accelerates integration and innovation.
Will Africa play its role?
The global economic race between the USA, China, and Europe will not be won in Washington, Beijing, or Brussels alone. It will be decided in Africa.
By 2030, Africa’s trajectory will depend less on external powers and more on leadership quality, policy coherence, institutional strength and ability to convert competition into leverage. Africa’s greatest risk is not foreign domination, but indecision. Its greatest opportunity is to transform global rivalry as explained above, into an African led development. The challenge is to avoid dependency(many African countries still rely on it) and leverage competition to accelerate industrialization, value creation and AfCTA integration.
The world is moving toward a multipolar economic order. No single power will fully dominate, but each bloc will lead in different dimensions: The US in finance and frontier innovation, China in industrial scale, infrastructure and innovation, Europe in regulation and sustainability.
The outcome of this race will define not just who grows faster, but how growth is structured, who benefits, and whose rules prevail. For African governments, investors, and businesses, understanding this strategic competition is no longer optional. It is essential for survival and success in the new global economy order.
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