This book explores, at a time when several powers have become serious players on the continent, aspects of African agency, past and present, by African writers on foreign policy, representative of geography, language and state size.

In the past, African foreign policy has largely been considered within the context of reactions to the international or global “external factor”. This groundbreaking book, however, looks at how foreign policy has been crafted and used in response not just to external, but also, mainly, domestic imperatives or (theoretical) signifiers. As such, it narrates individual and changing foreign policy orientations over time—and as far back as independence—with mainly African-based scholars who present their own constructs of what is a useful theoretical narrative regarding foreign policy on the continent—how theory is adapted to local circumstance or substituted for continentally based ontologies. The book therefore contends that the African experience carries valuable import for expanding general understandings of foreign policy in general.

This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of Foreign Policy Analysis, Foreign Policy Studies, African International Relations/Politics/Studies, Diplomacy and more broadly to International Relations.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

Paul-Henri Bischoff

2. What Next? Past and present African foreign policy concepts and practices

Paul-Henri Bischoff

3. The African Union as a Foreign Policy Player: African Agency in International Cooperation

Tshepo Gwatiwa

4. Unprincipled Pragmatism and Anti-Imperialist Impulses in an Interconnected World: The Zuma Presidency, 2009-2017

Mzukisi Qobo

5. Towards A Strategic Culture Approach to Understanding and Conceptualising Ethiopia’s Foreign Policy Towards Israel and the Middle Eastern Arab Countries

Makonnen Tesfaye

6.Nigeria’s Foreign Policy and Intervention Behaviour in Africa: What Role for Agency?

Olumuyiwa Amao

7. Zimbabwe and New Signifiers: Towards a cultural political economy of Foreign Policy Making

Mike Mavura

8. Realist Conceptions of Kenya’s Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Behaviour: A Theoretical and Contextual Disposition

Korwa Gombe Adar and Mercy Kathambi Kaburu

9. Addressing the Conceptual Void of African Small State Foreign Policy in Orthodox Theory: A Case Study of Botswana's Principled Pragmatism

Kabelo M. Mahupela

10. Tunisia’s Foreign Policy Towards France Before and After an Undemanding ‘Revolution’: A Theoretical Explanation of the An-Nahdha-led Interim Governments’ Soft Policy

Ahmed Ali Salem

11. Straddling Between Convergence and Divergence: A Constructivist’s View of Malawi’s Foreign Policy in Post-independence Africa

Eugenio Njoloma

12. Strategies of a Small State Between Realism and Liberalism: Sixty Years of Guinea’s Diplomacy and Foreign Policy (1958-2018)

Issaka K. Souaré

13. Rethinking SADC: A mixed actor approach to collective policymaking on external relations

Cecilia Lwiindi Nedziwe

14. Towards an Understanding of the Interplay Between Ghana’s Foreign and Defence Policies

Kwesi Aning and Kwaku Danso

15. Conclusion

Paul-Henri Bischoff/

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.

This book explores, at a time when several powers have become serious players on the continent, aspects of African agency, past and present, by African writers on foreign policy, representative of geography, language and state size. In the past, African foreign policy has largely been considered within the context of reactions to the international or global "external factor". This groundbreaking book, however, looks at how foreign policy has been crafted and used in response not just to external, but also, mainly, domestic imperatives or (theoretical) signifiers. As such, it narrates individual and changing foreign policy orientations over time-and as far back as independence-with mainly African-based scholars who present their own constructs of what is a useful theoretical narrative regarding foreign policy on the continent-how theory is adapted to local circumstance or substituted for continentally based ontologies. The book therefore contends that the African experience carries valuable import for expanding general understandings of foreign policy in general. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of Foreign Policy Analysis, Foreign Policy Studies, African International Relations/Politics/Studies, Diplomacy and more broadly to International Relations.

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.