In from the margins? The changing place of Africa in International Relations

Abstract

This article surveys recent literature on Africa and International Relations (IR) and reviews the current place of Africa within the discipline. It notes that critical debates continue around claims of a mismatch between Africa and ‘mainstream’ IR theories and concepts. However, alongside this set of issues, there is in fact a burgeoning literature on many aspects of Africa's international relations. While some of these studies utilize existing IR theories, and others explore empirical cases that could deliver important lessons for the wider discipline, much of this promise goes unfulfilled. The article reviews literature on China's role and on HIV/AIDS governance in Africa to illustrate how the study of African international relations, the wider IR discipline and international policy could all benefit from a closer engagement between Africa and IR. The article concludes by setting out three challenges for a renewed agenda: a need to address the problematic relationship between universal analytical concepts and regional particularities; a need to give recognition to, and analyse, African agency in international politics; and a need to address inequalities in knowledge production in the field of Africa's international relations.

African agency? Africa, South Africa and the BRICS

“…Second, the focus of a pair of recent collections (Brown and Harman, 2013;Lorenz and Rempe, 2013), Africa has generated an innovative range of 'new regionalisms' involving a range of non-state actors: from Maputo Corridor and Kgalagadi trans-frontier peace-park to Nile Basin Initiative (NBI)/Dialogue; and from International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) to corporate supply chains and now onto the grand scheme for the Tripartite Free Trade Agreement (Hartzenberg et al, 2012). Alex Warleigh-Lack et al (2011) have begun to recognize the relevance of such new regional relationships for comparative studies of the EU especially as it confronts its own financial crisis around the euro (Acharya, 2012;Fioramonti, 2012).…”

“…There are divergent regional incidences of and responses to the 'global' financial crisis with the global South being much less negatively impacted than the established trans-Atlantic core in both 'old' and 'new' worlds (Pieterse, 2011). And can African agency seize the opportunity to become primary driver of regional development in the second decade of the 21st century in addition to/instead of RSA and its fleeting advocacy of a New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) (Brown, 2012;Brown and Harman, 2013;Lorenz and Rempe, 2013)?…”

“…The increasing salience of the continent -soft if not hard balancing -was marked by a set of articles in International Affairs from Chatham House at the start of 2013, including a review of the field by Harman and Brown (2013) Moreover, at least some political economies on the continent are moving away from commodities to services:…”

“…Enlightened by Lucy Corkin's (2013) analysis of Angola's leverage over China's EXIM Bank, I relate to the emerging 'agency' versus 'dependency' debate (Brown, 2012;Brown and Harman, 2013;Harman and Brown, 2013;Lorenz and Rempe, 2013) as an unexpected correlate of the continent's recent unprecedented growth. This sets it apart from continuing economic difficulties and setbacks in much of the established North of the OECD, especially the PIIGS and Cyprus of the Eurozone.…”

“…Such growth and associated changes in the nature of 'governance' inside and around the continent may expand the possibility and reach of 'agency' of African countries and communities (Brown, 2012;Brown and Harman, 2013;Lorenz and Rempe, 2013); the ability of a range of African state and non-state actors to impact decisions and directions at a variety of levels by expanding their room for manoeuvre (Africa Progress Panel, 2012), or to maximise reach of balancing/norm setting: they can increasingly balance old influences from the EU and OECD with new, such as the BRICS and other emerging economies/powers. This unanticipated possibility is not just a function of continuing growth courtesy of the BRICS, especially China (Xing and Farah, 2013).…”