The author is a former senior diplomat who served in two African capitals.

The most under-reported development in international relations over the past five years has been the increasing operational coherence of African diplomatic coalitions on questions ranging from security to climate finance to commodity governance. The coherence has been quiet, has built incrementally, and has produced more substantive outcomes than the broader international media has registered.

Where the coherence is visible

The coherence is visible in several recent multilateral negotiations. African positions on climate-finance arrangements have been more unified and more effectively advocated than at any prior point. Coordinated responses to several specific security crises have demonstrated the kind of regional collective action that the broader continental framework has long aspired to.

What is producing it

What is producing the coherence is partly generational. The current cohort of senior African diplomats has been working together across multiple recent rotations; the relationships have produced operating practices that the prior cohorts had not had time to develop.

The coherence is also being produced by structural changes in the African Union's working procedures and by the capacity-building work that several specific regional bodies have invested in over the past decade.

What the broader system has missed

The broader international system has missed the development in part because the broader system's media infrastructure does not cover African diplomacy with the same rigour it covers diplomacy in other regions. The coverage gap has been a feature of the international system for decades; the gap has the consequence of producing analytical errors about what is actually happening.

What this means in practice

The practical implication is that international actors who continue to engage with African counterparts under outdated assumptions about African coalitions' coherence will find themselves outmanoeuvred more frequently than the assumptions imply. The adjustments to those assumptions will, on past patterns, lag the underlying changes by several years.

The honest read

The honest read is that African coalitions have been doing the kind of patient diplomatic work that produces durable outcomes. The work deserves more attention than the broader international media has been giving it. The attention will, eventually, follow the outcomes; the outcomes have been accumulating regardless.