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Introduction to African Politics
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- Stellenbosch University (SUN)
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Africa and IR theory | 1Africa and IR theory | 2
Afrika en IB teorie 2
AFRICA'S COLONIAL HISTORY 3
COLONIAL INHERITANCE 5
AFRICAS IDEOLOGIES 6
Ethnicity and religion in Africa 8
Africa and IR theory |
Little attention given to anything non western
Little development of non western IR theory
Asia… Africa
Western dominance of IR theory
•
Is existing IR theory (in)appropriate to the African experience?
•
Huntington’s “clash of civilisation”
1996
Collapse cultures into african civilization
Africa not homogenous
Many independent and different cultures
No one african culture, values
Huntington argued future wars fought between different political ideologies
,Africa and IR theory |
Afrika en IB teorie
Critics of discourse
Neorealism : focuses on the “great” powers of IR
Not africa or third world in neorealist theory
•
Classical realism little use for Africa
Huns M - Africa ‘political empty space’
•
Neo liberalism : continent lacks hegemonic power
•
Structuralist theories: expose historical specificity and exploitative structure
BUT also replicate Western bias
Continent part of global periphery
Marxism, Dependence…
Deconstructing traditional IR theory shows Africa holds a central and problematic position
Africa periphery of the core
Small states to which big states act
Mirror to which west defines itself
The other
Necessary for western
The core cannot exist without the periphery
Basic concepts that are central to traditional IR become problematic when applied to Africa
Anarchy, Sovereignty, State, Market
Ignore the continent
Cannot generalise that all IR theory is irrelevant to Africa:
four major counterarguments to critics of IR
1.
, Lower expectation of what IR theories can do
2.
Critique of neorealism rather than ‘western IR theory’
3.
Critique essentialises both European and African history
4.
Critique further marginalises Africa
Africa’s international relations | Afrika se internasionale betrekkinge
•
Africa’s foreign relations not static since independence
•
Two level game: internal (national unity, nationhood) and external (liberization, domination from
outside powers.) transformation goals
•
Political and economic instability affected Africa’s foreign relations
•
Renewed engagement and appraisal of Africa’s IR since
mid 1990s
•
African renaissance
AFRICA'S COLONIAL HISTORY
PREcolonial diverse africa
Divided into categories
Stateless-
Simple lifestyles
No wealth driven societies
Justice, accountability…
Grew and developed and evolved into states.
• Stateless societies developed political systems
• Larger stateless societies developed institutions and hierarchies that evolved into states
• Stimulus for state formation = economic surplus
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