Arete Volume One Fall 2022

Αρετή (Arete) Journal of Excellence in Global Leadership | Vol. 1 No. 1 | 2022

Spotlight on Djibouti The aim of this study was to examine the country of Djibouti to assess specific localized challenges of realizing the UN SDGs. The following study attempts to illustrate the juxtaposition of potential versus realized sustainable progress. Two distinct se ctions outline Djibouti’s unique advantages and the local challenges. Djibouti’s advantages include their geographical location, geopolitical influence in conjunction with their location, and geological activity. While on the one hand the advantages hint toward potential success, the SDG reports indicate much needed work to realize the goals. Geographical Location Historically the continent of Africa has been exploited or ignored by countries with their own agendas. Post-colonial African studies are an important factor in understanding the challenges of localizing SDGs targets in specific African countries, but a discussion of this falls outside the scope of this paper (for more information see [Dahre,2007]). What should be noted is that advances in social, economic, and environmental understanding tip the scale of power toward African countries as key components of global success. To illustrate, developed countries were established with a reliance on fossil fuel energy. For such countries, the transition to achieve sustainable development requires multistage processes of updating infrastructure, policies, and lifestyles (Carlson & Mabee, 2020). Emerging countries such as those on the African continent, not only supply countries like China with resources to sustain their established lifestyle, but also have the benefit of modern technology to allow them to implement cleaner energy infrastructure — essentially skipping traditional processes associated with development. One example is in Rwanda where drone systems and drones are used for delivery services in areas where the geographical topography makes it difficult to construct roads (Ninagawa, 2019). Despite the fact that Djibouti is located in the Eastern part of the African continent, its location on a global trade route acts as a shortcut and gateway to West Africa which is rich in resources upon which developed countries rely. For this reason, China has taken considerable interest in Djibouti, investing monetarily for multiple infrastructure projects, to secure access to natural resources sourced from the African continent. These projects included the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway, the Doraleh port and associated Free Trade Zone, the Ghoubet salt export facility, and the Djibouti Liquid Bulk Port (Chaziza, 2018; see also Dunford & Yeung, 2020; Carbone, 2020). Djibouti became an official partner of China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative in 2018 (Styan, 2020b). Djibouti’s global positioning also allows a close but safe location from which activities in the Middle East can be monitored. Global Strategic Position Djibouti’s combination of access to the sea, geographical location relative to other continents, and geographical terrain makes Djibouti a prime geopolitical location. Situated between Africa, Europe, and the Middle East and with ease of access to Asia, Djibouti holds a relatively central global presence. Coupled with the fact that

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