Post-Cold War International Relations and Foreign Policies in Africa: New Issues, New Directions and New Challenges

TASK: Post-Cold War International Relations and Foreign Policies in Africa: New Issues, New Directions and New Challenges

Table of contents

Introduction 3

Foreign policy and diplomacy as elements in international relations 3

Contemporary issues shaping Africa’s foreign policies 7

Consequences of the new orientation of Africa’s foreign policies 15

New directions for foreign policies? 18

Conclusion 22

Reference: 24

Introduction

Africa’s international relations in general and foreign policies in particular have taken a new dimension since the abatement of the Cold war. In contrast to the situation under bipolar politics, which provided African states with the leverage to play one superpower against the other in a bid to extract concessions, the continent’s post-cold war foreign policies have become circumscribed and relatively predictable. Besides, the abatement of the Cold War has generated new anxieties and challenges for the foreign policies of African states. The combined forces of globalization and marginalisation, along with internal factors, including debt, conflicts, the scourge of HIV/AIDS, and general human insecurity have not only become new sources of challenges, but also forces that inform the international relations and foreign policies of African states.

Foreign policy and diplomacy as elements in international relations

Foreign policy and diplomacy are as old as the state. Since the emergence of the modern state, generally traceable to the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, governments and statesmen have orchestrated relations between their states and others. The list of foreign entities affecting the foreign policy calculations of states increased with the growing importance of non-state actors, including, international financial Institutions (IFIs), multi-national corporations (MNCs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other inter-governmental bodies within the international system. The feature of such...