Home All Events The New Silk Road & Global Power Competition: Strategic Implications for African Business Leaders

The New Silk Road & Global Power Competition: Strategic Implications for African Business Leaders

Masterclass

PROFILE Master Degrees
DATE 21st February 2026
TIME 12:30 - 14:00 (GMT +01:00)
LANGUAGE English
EVENT FORMAT Face to Face events
The New Silk Road & Global Power Competition: Strategic Implications for African Business Leaders

In a rapidly shifting global landscape, Africa’s business leaders are operating at the crossroads of the world’s most consequential geopolitical rivalry: China vs. the United States. This masterclass, delivered by IE University, examines how the “New Silk Road” and intensifying global power competition are reshaping markets, supply chains, investment flows, technology ecosystems, and strategic opportunities across West Africa.

The session revisits the origins of the ancient Silk Road but focuses squarely on its 21st-century transformation—the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a trillion-dollar infrastructure and influence strategy through which China aims to reposition itself as the dominant global power by 2050. We will break down what this shift means for executives leading organizations across West Africa and beyond.

Our speakers

Professor at IE Business School

Professor at IE University since 1992, Fernando Cortiñas, a polyglot (speaking Spanish, English, German, Portuguese and Italian) has an MBA from Harvard Business School, serves as a visiting professor at over 5  universities and has courses with more than 30,000 students on Coursera. Fernando has over 35 years’ international work experience in leading multinationals, and as a professor in leading academic institutions in Europe and America.