This book explores foreign policy developments in post-colonial Africa. A continental foreign policy is a tenuous proposition, yet new African states emerged out of armed resistance and advocacy from regional allies such as the Bandung Conference and the League of Arab States. Ghana was the first Sub-Saharan African country to gain independence in 1957. Fourteen more countries gained independence in 1960 alone, and by May 1963, when the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was formed, 30 countries were independent. An early OAU committee was the African Liberation Committee (ALC), tasked to work in the Frontline States (FLS) to support independence in Southern Africa. Pan-Africanists, in alliance with Brazzaville, Casablanca and Monrovia groups, approached continental unity differently, and regionalism continued to be a major feature. Africa’s challenges were often magnified by the capitalist-democratic versus communist-socialist bloc rivalry, but through Africa’s use and leveraging of IGOs – the UN, UNDP, UNECA, GATT, NIEO and others – to advance development, the formation of the African Economic Community, OAU’s evolution into the AU and other alliances belied collective actions, even as Africa implemented decisions that required cooperation: uti possidetis (maintaining colonial borders), containing secession, intra- and inter-state conflicts, rebellions and building RECs and a united Africa as envisioned by Pan Africanists worked better collectively.
Author(s): Stephen M. Magu
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 348
City: Cham
Preface
Acknowledgments
Contents
Abbreviations
1 The Beginning of a Post-colonial Foreign Policy in Africa
Defining Africa’s Important Issues
The Critical Issues
Research Monograph Outline
References
2 Conceptual Approaches to Foreign Policy and Application to African Countries
Introduction
Parsing Process: Considering Theories and Foreign Policy
Contemporary Theories of Foreign Policy
Rational Actor Model/Rational Choice Theory
Organizational Processes Model
Bureaucratic Politics Model
Groupthink Approach
Prospect/Loss Aversion Theory
Poliheuristic Model/Poliheuristic Choice Theory
Domestic Audience Costs
Conclusion
References
3 Politics of Geography, Statehood, Residual Colonization and Territorial Integrity
Introduction
The Philosophy of Continental Union and the Politics of Geography
Consensus: Founding the Organization of African Unity (OAU)
OAU = Continental Unity: (Maybe)
New Statehood, Non-statehood, New Strategy and New Muscle
Higher Purpose: Absolute Sovereignty Versus Non-interference
African Liberation Committee: Funding Allocation Mechanisms
Confounding Challenge: Keep, Modify, Redraw or Discard Colonial Boundaries?
Coexistence Between Neighbors: Problems Abound
Persistence: The Ethnic Problem of Boundaries
Concluding Thoughts
References
4 Africa Huru! Complex Events—Cold War, Residual Colonization and Apartheid
Introduction
Finding Common Positions: UN, OAU and Anti-colonial Efforts
The United Nations and Decolonization
Africa’s Position on UN Anti-colonial Efforts
Khrushchev: Africa’s Friend/s in High Places… or Enemies of My Enemy?
Friends of Friends in a Fist-Fight
‘Green Grass in the Snake’: The African Split on Africa’s Positions on Apartheid
Doing the Same Thing Over…West African Perspectives
Frontline States: Malawi’s Versus Regional States’ Position on Apartheid
Penguins in Madagascar
Elsewhere: The Arab League’s Anti-apartheid Positions
On the Persistence of White Minority Rule in Africa: Rhodesia
Africa: Incensed, Motivated Against Rhodesia’s UDI
When Two Bulls Fight: Nkrumah’s Militancy and Nyerere’s Pragmatism
Concluding Thoughts
References
5 Nation vs. Continent: Sovereignty, Territorial Integrity and Rebellion
Introduction
Paradox of Regionalism: Challenging Continental Unity, Sovereignty and Non-Interference
RECs and RTAs: A Viable Pathway to Continental Unity?
Commonwealth of Former Colonies and the British Empire’s Reincarnation
Francophone Africa and Continental Unity
Algeria/Morocco at War: OAU Responses to the ‘Sands War’
The Ethiopia/Somalia (Ogaden) War(s)
Uganda–Tanzania War/Kagera War/Vita Vya Kagera
Unraveling Imperial Misdeeds: Ethiopia vs. Eritrea
Concluding Thoughts
References
6 Made in Europe: Breaking Nations, Secession Movements and OAU Responses
Introduction
A Different Beast: Secession
Secession’s What, Where and How: Violence and Separatism as Political Strategy
Kenya: Northern Frontier District (NFD) and Former Sultanates (Coast)
Greater Somalia: Unification, Disunity and Secession
Half-Hearted Wars, Interventionist Nations, Regional Mediation and OAU’s Responses
OAU: Negotiating Lasting Peace
Nigeria: Ethnic Conflict and Biafra’s Secession
OAU and Africa’s Position on Biafra: A House Divided
bilād as-sūdān: Successful Secession and the Birth of South Sudan
OAU and Sudan: Unable, Unwilling or Ineffective?
Secession, Breaking Apart, Old Conflicts, New States and Murky Futures: Conclusion
References
7 Region or Continent: O/AU Development and Regional Economic Communities
Introduction
Made in Europe: Imposed Backwardness
OAU, IGOs and Economic Development in the Early Years
The OAU and the African Economic Community
OAU and the UN: Commissions, Funds and Cooperation
OAU and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
O/AU and Global Trade Regimes: From GATT to WTO
After RECs and OAU/AU Comes Beast Mode: AfCFTA
AEC or US-Africa: The RECs Highway
Africa’s Economies, Trade Regimes, RECs and the Future
References
8 Between BRICs’ Promise and Past Western Trauma: Whither, Africa?
Introduction
Brazil: Portugal’s Twin and Reluctant Suitor?
Russia: Still No Strategy
Old Games and New Players: Russia in Africa in the Post-cold War Era
Resurgent Russia: New Pro-Africa Global Actor or Stridently Anti-West (Again)?
The India–Africa Complexity
Self-inflicted Wounds? Inclusion, Rejection, Ejection
India Arica Forum Summit
The Great Suspicion: What Is China Doing in Africa?
FOCACs: Fleeting Fair-Weather Friends or True Partnership?
Inevitability: Superpower Collapse, New Neo-Colonialism and Global Counterweights
Concluding Thoughts
References
9 Africa’s Post-Colonial Foreign Policy: Assessing History, Imagining the Future
Introduction
O/AU Foreign Policy: Africa’s Preferences, Parsed
OAU/AU Dispersed Foreign Policy Issues of Note
State Fragility, State Failure and the Rise of Violent Non-State Actors
On Terrorism
O/AU and Climate Change: Implications for a Changing—Warming Planet
AU and Regional/Global Governance: Diluting Sovereignty with Responsibility to Protect
Concluding Thoughts: From Pan-Africanism to Agenda 2063—A Future of Our Own
References
Index
