The recent wind of ‘popular uprisings’ blowing across North Africa, most notably Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Libya, is monumental and unprecedented. Indeed, the world was taken aback by these uprisings. Despite notable contextual variations in the triggers and accelerators of the uprisings, which largely account for the divergent trajectories and outcomes, a common denominator seems to be the all-pervasive legitimacy crisis, or better still, the negative legitimacy, in these countries.

India has embarked on a policy to balance its need for accessing strategic energy resources from the African continent with Africa's aspirations for greater skills and sustainable development. Sudan has turned out to be the gateway for India's energy quest in Africa. India's age-old ties with Sudan have been crucial in accessing oil from the country. New Delhi's close relations helped to assuage the initial hiccups; however conflict between the Sudanese government and that of Southern Sudan have created some problems.