ABSTRACT
Angola is a country of limited strategic importance and has abundant reserves of oil. Based on these characteristics, together with the history of the case, the empirical expectation is that economic interests are the dominant motivating force in Angola. The qualitative analysis does not entirely confirm this empirical expectation, as there is evidence that both economic and state interests dominate in the key decisions examined (the Eximbank loan to Angola in 2004, the case of the failed refinery deal in 2006–07, and the failed attempt of Sinopec and CNOOC in 2009–10). The two methods were corroborated in two of the three key decisions. Thus, the empirical expectation presented here is only partially supported, as the quantitative and qualitative analyses show evidence of both economic and state interests.
