Africa In The Contemporary World Order

DIVA collection of Ferguson's essays that bring the question of Africa into the center of current debates on globalization, modernity, and emerging forms of world order./div

Contemporary 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.

This book examines the role of the emerging African nations in the new international order of the twenty-first century. Since the end of the Cold War, little significance has been placed on the African continent in the security and political considerations of the Western world. However, post-9/11 international security has been redefined, and new challenges have been identified. Thus, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, Africa is facing a variety of new security challenges. Africa has become an increasingly important battleground in the fight against terrorism. Since the beginning of 2011, the new revolutions, now known as the Arab Spring, that swept through North Africa have created new challenges for the African continent and are compounding the African peoples’ struggles for poverty alleviation, state stability, security, socio-political and socio-economic development, democracy, and good governance. In addition to these crises of civil war, ethnic conflict, state insecurity, and rampant corruption at all levels, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has ravaged the continent for the past four decades. The only major pan-African organization—the African Union—is unable to lead and defend the continent effectively. At this crucial period when the continent is confronted with these myriad of security challenges, it needs effective, strong leadership that possesses both human and natural resources to play a leadership role in Africa and lead the continent in the new global order of the twenty-first century. The contributors to this volume analyze many of these issues and place them in the wider context of global security.

This book examines China’s political, economic, and diplomatic engagement in Africa. The rapid increase of China’s economic and political involvement in Africa is the most momentous development on the continent of Africa since the beginning of the twenty-first century. China is now Africa’s largest trading partner and the largest infrastructure financier. Additionally, it is the fastest growing economy and source of foreign direct investment. This monograph seeks to understand the dynamics of the escalating Chinese investments in African economies and the political implications of this development for Africa. This work will interest scholars, students, academics, and policy makers on the fields of Chinese and African politics, development studies, and international political economy.

Introduces this volume by stressing the need for correct information on Africa, and the acceptance of cultural, economic, political and moral challenges in Africa. Examines the post-Cold War issues for the New World Order : political economy, global pluralism, economic change, political instability, religious cosmology, foreign policy, human rights, etc.

Africa in World Politics provides advanced undergraduate and graduate students with the perfect introduction to the challenges faced by African states on an increasingly turbulent world stage. Africa in World Politics has long served as the go-to resource for students of African politics seeking to navigate the continent’s complex political and economic landscapes. Updated throughout, this new edition includes new chapters on the unprecedented challenges the continent faces from climate change and the fallout of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Adding to existing coverage of international diplomacy, peacebuilding, women in politics, and the building blocks of political economy, the book also includes expanded coverage of the role of China in Africa, and fresh perspectives on decolonization. Drawing together insights from some of the world’s leading scholars of African politics, this textbook is an essential read for advanced students of political science and African studies.

This handbook fills a large gap in the current knowledge about the critical role of Africa in the changing global order. By connecting the past, present, and future in a continuum that shows the paradox of existence for over one billion people, the book underlines the centrality of the African continent to global knowledge production, the global economy, global security, and global creativity. Bringing together perspectives from top Africa scholars, it actively dispels myths of the continent as just a passive recipient of external influences, presenting instead an image of an active global agent that astutely projects soft power. Unlike previous handbooks, this book offers an eclectic mix of historical, contemporary, and interdisciplinary approaches that allow for a more holistic view of the many aspects of Africa’s relations with the world.

This textbook on power, wealth, global order, and international relations is designed for students taking introductory courses in international relations and African studies. Challenging the intellectual domination of the north, this book shows what the world and its patterns of power, wealth, and privilege look like from an African perspective of transborder political and economic interaction in today’s world. Students are empowered to become active players on the global stage and to contribute to changing these structures and institutions for the better. Up-to-date advice is provided on how to use the Internet and how to pursue careers in international relations. A glossary, list of acronyms, bibliography, index, maps, and biographies of important people mentioned in the text are also included.

The book critically analyzes the ongoing changes in the regional, intra-regional, and global dynamics of cooperation, from a multi-disciplinary and pluralist perspective. It is based on the insight that in a post-hegemonic world the formation of regions and the process of globalization can be largely disconnected from the orbit of the US, and that a plurality of power and worldviews has replaced US hegemony. In spite of these changes, most existing analyses of current changes in the world order still rely upon Western-centered approaches, and Westphalian thinking. Against this backdrop, the book proposes to advance a truly global IR understanding of the post-hegemonic world, and weaves together the pluralist and multi-disciplinary perspectives of scholars located all around the world.