Description
Book SynopsisContemporary Africa and the Foreseeable World Order brings together rich and diverse contributions from seasoned scholars from around the globe. Anchored in a wide array of disciplinary perspectives, the contributors explore the interesting and complex dynamics at play in Africa’s interactions with the rest of the world.
Trade ReviewMany essays, books, and studies covering the continent of Africa focus on the past, yet editors Francis Onditi, Gilad Ben-nun, Cristina D’Alessandro, and Zach Levey organize a forward-looking anthology analyzing important political, geopolitical, ethical, theoretical, and practical issues facing the continent while avoiding simplistic afro-pessimism and afro-optimism dichotomies. . . . The best essays take a clear-eyed view of the challenges facing countries on the continent, while applying careful analysis regarding solutions and opportunities. . . . Overall, this collection features many strong chapters addressing issues with which the continent and world will soon grapple. . . the essays advance important arguments that could shape future discourse.
* African Studies Quarterly *
For researchers and students looking to understand intra-African geopolitics, particularly in East Africa, this book would be useful. While it contributes to ‘dispelling the notion that Africa is a “dark” continent that can provide the international system with neither leadership nor inspiration’ (p. 399), it should also act as a call to further examine the role of African states and institutions in the shifting sands of international geopolitics.
* South African Journal of International Affairs *
"This is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the foreseeable world order. Intellectually stimulating, full of new ideas for policymakers and stakeholders operating in Africa, this edited volume is scrupulously careful to report only the facts about the continent's foreign relations, within the region and with the rest of the world. Onditi and his collaborators have offered a new depiction of what they call the ‘foreseeable world order’ that may achieve a longstanding African aspiration to set a global agenda.” -- Douglas Yates, American University of Paris
“At a time when the African Union is engaged in a far-reaching debate on institutional and financial reforms, Contemporary Africa in the Foreseeable World Order offers timely and stimulating perspectives on the place of the African continent in a changing world order. This is an important contribution to international relations' scholarship on Africa, with an interest in changing values, rules and institutions in Africa and how these relate to emerging new powers such as China." -- Ulf Engel, University of Leipzig
“Contemporary Africa and the Foreseeable World Order is a much-welcomed book because it looks at International relations from a specific African perspective. The African continent is often studied simply as the field and the stake of competing external interests. In this book, Africa becomes the position from which international relations are analyzed and evaluated. This book positively contributes to the deconstruction of the narrative of the ‘dark continent’ that still affects too many academic researches.” -- Valerio Bini, University of Milan
“Contemporary Africa and the Foreseeable World Order helps to shine a spotlight on the challenges facing Africa, indicate the areas where significant strides have been made, and propose how African countries can act individually and collectively to build on those gains. The book makes for a compelling read.” -- Ejeviome Eloho Otobo, Global Governance Institute, Brussels, Belgium
Table of ContentsChapter 1: Rethinking the New World Order and Its Implications for Africa
Chapter 2: Africa and the Remaking of Global Order
Chapter 3: Towards a New Peace and Security Agenda: Contributions from Pan Africanism
Chapter 4: The AU’s New Funding Mechanisms: Self-Financing at Last?
Chapter 5: Can the African Union Innovate in Conflict Prevention? Evidence from Mediation and Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism
Chapter 6: Antidotes to Extremism: Africa’s Refugee Hospitality Paradigm
Chapter 7: Relational African Values between Nations: Bringing Communion to the Global OrderChapter 8: Between Atavism and Modernity: Sub-Saharan Africa’s Strained Relationship with Constitutionalism
Chapter 9: Another Round of Plunder? China, Africa and International Politics through the Lens of the Mugabe Government, c.2000 to 2016
Chapter 10: How “Organized Hypocrisy” within the Standby Force is pulling Africa from the global influence
Chapter 11: Balance of Power and the 2017 African Union Commission Elections
Chapter 12: Hydropolitics of Resource Exploration in Eastern Africa
Chapter 13: Politics of Oil in Eastern Africa: Does it present another Geopolitical Pivot?
Chapter 14: State-Led Development in Ethiopia: A Failing Legacy or an Existential Threat to the Nation?
Chapter 15: Regime Construction and Sustainable Stability in the Nile Basin: The East African Community Multilateral Diplomacy in a Theoretical ContextChapter 16: The Future of Kiswahili is Bright: The Potential of East Africa’s Lingua Franca in the Emerging World OrderChapter 17: Kenya’s National Security and International Refugee Law in the Dynamic World OrderChapter 18: Can the “African Centrered Journalism” Contain the Terror threats in the New World Order?
Chapter 19: African Foreign Policy Making in the African Union: Peace and Security
Chapter 20: Kenya’s Foreign Policy (2013-2017) and African Renaissance
Chapter 21: The Making of ‘Gender Diplomacy’ as a Foreign Policy Pillar in Kenya and Namibia
