Africa and the international system : the politics of state survival

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Title:

Author:

Clapham, Christopher S.

ISBN:

9780521572071

9780521576680

Personal Author:

Clapham, Christopher S.

Publication Information:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Physical Description:

xii, 340 p. ; 23 cm.

Series:

Cambridge studies in international relations ; 50

Series Title:

Cambridge studies in international relations ; 50

Contents:

1. Fragile states and the international system -- 2. The creation of an African international order -- 3. Domestic statehood and foreign policy -- 4. The Foreign Policies of Post-Colonialism -- 5. The politics of solidarity -- 6. The resort to the superpowers -- 7. The international politics of economic failure -- 8. The Externalisation of political accountability -- 9. The International politics of insurgency -- 10. The privatisation of diplomacy -- 11. Conclusion.

Abstract:

African independence launched into international politics a group of the world's poorest, weakest and most artificial states. How have such states managed to survive? To what extent is their survival now threatened? Christopher Clapham shows how an initially supportive international environment has - as a result partly of political and economic mismanagement within African states themselves, partly of global developments over which they had no control - become increasingly threatening to African rulers and the states over which they preside. The author also reveals how international conventions designed to uphold state sovereignty have often been appropriated and subverted by rulers to enhance their domestic control, and how African states have been undermined by guerilla insurgencies and the use of international relations to serve essentially private ends.

He shows how awkward, how ambiguous, how unsatisfactory, and often how tragic, has been the encounter between Africa and Western conceptions of statehood.

Subject Term:

Self-determination, National -- Africa.

Sovereignty.

Geographic Term:

Africa -- Foreign relations -- 1960-

Electronic Access:

Table of contents http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/cam022/96003882.html
Publisher description http://www.loc.gov/catdir/description/cam027/96003882.html
Sample text http://www.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam031/96003882.html

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Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168015752005	327.09609045 C588A 1996	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

African independence launched into international politics a group of the world's poorest, weakest, and most artificial states. How have such states managed to survive? To what extent is their survival now threatened? Christopher Clapham shows how an initially supportive international environment has - as a result partly of political and economic mismanagement within African states themselves, partly of global developments over which they had no control - become increasingly threatening to African rulers and the states over which they preside. The author also reveals how international conventions designed to uphold state sovereignty have often been appropriated and subverted by rulers to enhance their domestic control, and how African states have been undermined by guerrilla insurgencies and the use of international relations to serve essentially private ends. He shows how awkward, how ambiguous, how unsatisfactory, and often how tragic, has been the encounter between Africa and Western conceptions of statehood.