Africa And The International System

Paying for the state.

Africa’s international relations have often been defined and oriented by the dominant international and geopolitical agendas of the day. In the aftermath of colonialism the Cold War became a dominant paradigm that defined the nature of the continent’s relationship with the rest of the world. The contemporary forces of globalization are now exerting an undue influence and impact upon Africa’s international relations. Increasingly, the African continent is emerging as a vocal, and in some respects an influential, actor in international relations. There is a paucity of analysis and research on this emerging trend. This timely book proposes to fill this analytical gap by engaging with a wide range of issues, with chapters written by experts on a variety of themes. The emerging political prominence of the African continent on the world stage is predicated on an evolving internal process of continental integration. In particular, there are normative and policy efforts to revive the spirit of Pan-Africanism: the 21st century is witnessing the evolution of Pan-Africanism, notably through the constitution and establishment of the African Union (AU). Given the fact that there is a dearth of analysis on this phenomemon, this volume will also interrogate the notion of Pan-Africanism through various lenses – notably peace and security, development, the environment and trade. The volume will also engage with the emerging role of the AU as an international actor, e.g. with regard to its role in the reform of the United Nations Security Council, climate change, the International Criminal Court (ICC), the treaty establishing Africa as a nuclear-free zone, Internally Displaced Persons, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), international trade, the environment, public health issues, security, and development issues. This book will assess how the AU’s role as an international actor is complicated by the difficulty of promoting consensus among African states and then maintaining that consensus in the face of often divergent national interests. This book will in part assess the role of the AU in articulating collective and joint policies and in making interventions in international decision and policy-making circles. The Handbook will also assess the role of African social movements and their relationship with global actors. The role of African citizens in ameliorating their own conditions is often underplayed in the international relations discourse, and this volume will seek to redress this oversight. Throughout the book the various chapters will also assess the role that these citizen linkages have contributed towards continental integration and in confronting the challenges of globalization.

Recent scholarship in International Relations (IR) has started to study the meaning and implications of a non-Western world. With this comes the need for a new paradigm of IR theory that is more global, open, inclusive, and able to capture the voices and experiences of both Western and non-Western worlds. This book investigates why Africa has been marginalised in IR discipline and theory and how this issue can be addressed in the context of the emerging Global IR paradigm. To have relevance for Africa, a new IR theory needs to be more inclusive, intellectually negotiated and holistically steeped in the African context. In this innovative volume, each author takes a critical look at existing IR paradigms and offers a unique perspective based on the African experience. Following on from Amitav Acharya and Barry Buzan’s work, Non-Western International Relations Theory, it develops and advances non-Western IR theory and the idea of Global IR. This volume will be of key interest to scholars and students of African politics, international relations, IR theory and comparative politics.

The author presents a journey through African and Western history, culture and politics. By essaying Africa's international relations, Mazrui returns to an important truth: the power of race and culture in Africa's relations with the West. Discussing African political formation, his overriding theme, not unpredictably, is assimilation - of the enti

This book discusses the prospects for the development of the African continent as part of the emerging system of international relations in the twenty-first century. African countries are playing an increasingly important part in the current system of international relations. Nevertheless, even 60 years after gaining their independence, most of them are confronted with regional and global issues that are directly related to their colonial past and its influence. Due to Africa’s wealth of natural and geopolitical resources, the possibility of interference in the internal affairs of African countries on the part of new and traditional global actors remains very real. Leading Africanists, together with international scholars from both international relations and African studies, examine the experience of decolonization, the impact of the emergence of a unipolar world on the African continent, and the growing influence of new international actors on the African continent in the twenty-first century. In addition, the importance of African countries’ foreign policy concepts and ideological attitudes in the post-bipolar period is revealed. “This volume strengthens the intellectual bridge between Russian, African and Western scholars of international relations. Strongly recommended!” Vladimir G. Shubin, Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences “This book presents a wide range of prominent global scholars who bring a wealth of knowledge on the subject of Africa and the world.” Gilbert Khadiagala, Jan Smuts Professor of International Relations and Director of the African Centre for the Study of the USA (ACSUS) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. “As a genuine contribution to the field of international relations and Global South Agency, this book should be in every institution of higher education’s library.” Lembe Tiky, Director of Academic Development, International Studies Association.

This book examines key emergent trends related to aspects of power, sovereignty, conflict, peace, development, and changing social dynamics in the African context. It challenges conventional IR precepts of authority, politics and society, which have proven to be so inadequate in explaining African processes. Rather, this edited collection analyses the significance of many of the uncharted dimensions of Africa's international relations, such as the respatialisation of African societies through migration, and the impacts this process has had on state power; the various ways in which both formal and informal authority and economies are practised; and the dynamics and impacts of new transnational social movements on African politics. Finally, attention is paid to Africa's place in a shifting global order, and the implications for African international relations of the emergence of new world powers and/or alliances. This edition includes a new preface by the editors, which brings the findings of the book up-to-date, and analyses the changes that are likely to impact upon global governance and human development in policy and practice in Africa and the wider world post-2015.

Locating Africa on the global stage, this book examines and compares external involvement in the continent, exploring the foreign policies of major states and international organizations towards Africa. The contributors work within a political economy framework in order to study how these powers have attempted to stimulate democracy, peace and prosperity in the context of neo-liberal hegemony and ask whom these attempts have benefited and failed.