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Author Clapham, Christopher S.

Title Africa and the international system : the politics of state survival / Christopher Clapham
Published Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1996

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 MELB  327.096 Cla/Aat  DUE 03-05-24
Description xii, 340 pages ; 23 cm
Series Cambridge studies in international relations ; 50
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
Summary He shows how awkward, how ambiguous, how unsatisfactory, and often how tragic, has been the encounter between Africa and Western conceptions of statehood
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
Analysis Africa
Foreign relations
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-331) and index
Subject Self-determination, National -- Africa.
Sovereignty.
SUBJECT Africa -- Foreign relations -- 1960- http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85001555
LC no. 96003882
ISBN 052157207X
0521576687