International Relations of Africa

Pan-Africanism

-A political movement advocating solidarity, unity, and cooperation among African States.

-Pan-Africanism was extremely influenced by anti colonial struggles and institutions like the OAU.

African Union

-A continental organization of 55 African states established in 2002, succeeding the organization of African Unity (OAU).

-Aims to promote political cooperation, economic integration, peace and security, and development across Africa.

-Effectiveness often limited by state sovereignty and uneven enforcement.

-Intervention in grave circumstances (War crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity), however the effectiveness of this intervention often is questioned.

Belt and Road initiative

-Launched by China is 2013, BRI connects trade routes by building modern infrastructure across Asia, Europe, Africa etc.

-Hard infrastructure (Roads, Railways, Ports, energy) + Soft infrastructure Digital, financial, people to people links)

-Beneficial for China because they are promoting trade, utilizing excess capacity, securing crucial resources, and expanding their influence.

FOR AFRICA

-Infrastructure development, economic opportunities (JOBS), Diversified markets, interconnected economic corridors, concrete projects vital for Africa and modernization.

Wagner Group

Russian linked private military forces operating in African conflicts. They exchange security services for political influence and access to resources.

Debt Trap

• The practice of extending large loans to developing countries that may be difficult to pay for the recipient, increasing creditor leverage over the borrower.

• In African politics it is discussed in relation to foreign infrastructure lending where debt dependence can limit policy autonomy and increase external influence.

CFA Franc

• A currency used by several West and Central African countries originally created during French colonial rule and is still linked to the French Treasury.

• Often criticized for limiting monetary sovereignty and reinforcing economic dependence on France, despite providing currency stability.

New Scramble for Africa

The intense competition between global superpowers (EU, RUSSIA, INDIA, CHINA,, USA ) for African resources.

Resources like oil, minerals, and land.

Echoes 19th century colonialism but uses economic aid, infrastructure development, trade deals, and military partnerships instead of conquest.

Positives: Infrastructure development, and economic growth

Negatives: Increased debt burdens, resource exploitation, challenges to African sovereignty

International monetary Fund (IMF)

-A global financial institution that provides loans and policy advice to countries facing balance-of- payment crisis.

-In African politics the IMF is closely associated with Structural Adjustment Programs which promoted austerity and market reforms but often reduced social spending and weakened state capacity.

World Trade Organization (WTO)

-An international institution that regulated global trade by setting rules, resolving disputes, and promoting trade liberalization.

-In African politics, the WTO membership has expanded market access but also exposed domestic industries to global competition, often disadvantaging less diversified economies.

Neocolonialism

-Indirect control of former colonies through economic and political pressure. It replaces formal colonial rule with dependency.

-In African politics, neocolonialism operated through trade dependence, foreign aid, debt, military presence, and multinational corporation limiting genuine sovereignty.

ECOWAS

The Economic Community of West African States

A regional organization focused on economic integration and collective security among West African countries, which also formed ECOMOG a regional military force to address conflicts in member states.

*Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger recently left ECOWAS because the military juntas claimed ECOWAS failed to protect members, imposed unjust sanctions and was too aligned with FRANCE.

Fragmentation

-Refers to the division of political authority, territory or social power among multiple actors rather than a strong central state.

-In Africa fragmentation weakened anti colonial struggles and post independence governance

Autochthony

The belief that only native populations have legitimate political rights. It is frequently used to exclude rivals and justify violence.

Military Bourgeois

A class of military elites who use state power for personal wealth and political dominance. They function as an economic ruling class.

Involution

A process in which political, economic or social systems become more complex and internally elaborate without producing meaningful gains in productivity, development or state capacity.

Global and Inclusive Agreement

A power sharing framework designed to end conflict by including all major political and armed actors in a transitional government.

Most notable used in the Democratic Republic of The Congo, It is used to promote peace and stability by integrating former rivals into state institutions often at the cost of weak governance and accountability.

Symbiosis

A mutually reinforcing relationship between political actors, institutions, or social groups in which each benefits from the others survival or power.

Describes the reciprocal dependence between state elites and informal networks, businesses or armed groups that sustain authority.

Rwandan Genocide

A 1994 conflict involving the mass killing of Tutsis in Rwanda and refugees fleeing into neighboring Congo, contributing to regional instability and armed group movements through weak state zones and national parks.

Mobuto

Authoritarian rules of Zaire (Now the DRC) from 1965 to 1997

His regime exemplified neopatrimonialism, where state resources were used to maintain personal rule. He centralized the control of mining resources through nationalization.

Kabila

-President of the DRC from 2001-2019

initially gained domestic and international support as a stabilizing figure during the Congolese wars.

Governed a highly fragmented and decentralized state, limited effective control over territory and the military.

Jason Stearns: entrenched patronage networks and weak institutions made meaningful security and state reform extremely difficult, illustrating the structural constraints on leadership in the DRC

Patronage

An informal system where political elites (Patrons) use state resources and favors to reward supporters (Clients), securing their loyalty and maintaining power. This system often coexists with formal institutions and shapes governance through personal networks rather than official rules.

domestic insurgency

A domestic insurgency is an internal conflict where armed groups challenge the existing government to gain power or influence, often operating irregularly withing the state.

EX: Ugandas Lord’s Resistance Army, led by Jospeh Kony is a warlord insurgency focused on personal power rather than governance or ideology.

Secessionist Civil War

An internal conflict in which a group within a country seeks to break away and form a new independent state, opposing the existing government’s authority over that territory. These wars are often driven by desires for sovereignty, often fueled by ethnic, religious, or regional difference

EX: The Biafra War (1967-1970) in Nigeria.

National liberation wars

Conflicts where colonized or oppressed groups fight against colonial or settler regimes to gain independence and self determination. These wars often arise in settler colonies where indigenous populations resist land dispossession and political domination.

Ex. Kenya’s mau Mau Uprising (1952-1960)

Interstate Warfare

Armed conflicts between two or more recognized states or countries. In Africa these wars are rare due to the acceptance of Colonial era border (UTI POSSIDETIS) which helped maintain stability and minimize territorial disputes.

EX: The Tanzania-Uganda War (1978-1979)

Transitional Government

A temporary governing body established to manage a country’s political transition, often following conflict or regime change.

Ex: In the DRC after 2003 a transitional government was formed to include formed armed groups and political actors to help restore peace and prepare for elections.

Composite Conflict

• A conflict driven by several overlapping causes at the same time rather than a single issue.

• Economic, Social, political, ethnic and international factors

• Makes it prolonged and difficult to solve

Stationary vs. Moving Guerrillas

Stationary: operate from fixed territories or strongholds relying on the local population support.

moving: Remain highly mobile, avoiding fixed positions and instead using hit and run tactics to evade stronger state forces.

Uti Possidetis

A principle in international law that states newly formed sovereign states should keep the existing borders they had before independence or conflict to prevent territorial disputes.

Military Mutiny

An organized rebellion or uprising by members of the armed forces against their commanding officers or government authority.

Typically involved soldiers refusing orders, seizing control of military units or installations and challenging the existing command.

Third Wave Democratization

The global spread of democratic transitions beginning in the mid 1970s and accelerating in Africa during the early 1990s.

In Africa it led to the introduction of multiparty elections and political liberalization

Though many transitions resulted in hybrid or semi authoritarian regimes rather than full democracies.

Democratization

The process by which political systems transition from authoritarian rule toward more democratic governance.

In African politics democratization has often involved multiparty elections and constitutional reforms, but has been constrained by weak institutions, elite manipulation and uneven state capacity.

Example: Benin (1990-1991), Transitioned from authoritarian rule to a multiparty democracy through a National Conference that rewrote the constitution and held competitive elections.

Polarization

Deep division of society or politics into opposing groups with little room for compromise.

In africa polarization often occurs along ethnic, regional, religious or party lines weakening national cohesion and increasing the risk of political violence or democratic breakdown.

State Capacity

The ability of the state to implement decisions, enforce laws, collect taxes and provide public goods.

In Africa , low state capacity often results in weak governance, limited territorial control and reliance on informal or non state actors.

Fusion of Elites

blending of traditional, colonial, military and political elites into a single ruling group that consolidates power and resources after independence.

Primordialism

The idea that ethnic, religious or tribal identities are fixed, ancient and naturally determine political loyalty and conflict.

Africa Core

Regions or groups with concentrated political, economic, and military power that dominate national decision-making and control key rescources.

Neopatrimonialism

Modern state institutions exist but real power operated through personal patronage, clientelism and loyalty networks.

Elite Defection

Members of the ruling elite withdraw support from the regime, often weakening the state and increasing the likelihood of political instability or conflict.

Democratic Consolidation

The process by which democratic institutions, norms, and practices become stable, widely accepted and resistant to reversal.

Autocratization / Democratic backslide

Process by which a political system becomes less democratic as power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a leader or ruling elite.

Erosion of democratic institutions and norms, also sliding towards authoritarian rule.

Democratic transitions

• Late 1980s–early 1990s: Economic crisis, Cold War end, and popular protests weaken authoritarian regimes.

• Early–mid 1990s: Political liberalization—national conferences, new constitutions, legalization of parties, and first multiparty elections.

• Mid 1990s–2000s: Partial consolidation or reversal—some states institutionalize democracy, others experience elite capture, coups, or authoritarian rollback.

• 2010s–present: Divergence—some countries deepen democratic norms, while others undergo democratic backsliding or autocratization.

Economic Neoliberalism

An economic approach emphasizing market liberalization, privatization, deregulation and reduced state intervention.

In Africa this concept is most associated with the IMF and Work Bank Structural Adjustment Programs which aimed to promote efficiency and growth but often weakened state capacity and social services.

Dual Economy

An economy divided into two distinct sectors: a modern, formal sector and a traditional or informal sector.

Dual economies often reflect colonial legacies, where export oriented industries coexist with low productivity agriculture or informal labor reinforcing inequality and uneven development.

Path dependence

Refers to the idea that past political, economic, or institutional choices strongly shape present outcomes by locking countries into specific trajectories.

- In African politics, colonial institutions, early post-independence policies, and conflict legacies often constrain reform and make change difficult even when better alternatives exist.

Rich continent/POOR POPULATION

The concept highlights the paradox that Africa as a continent is rich in natural resources, such as minerals, raw materials, and valuable cash crops, yet its people remain poor due to historical, political, and economic factors.

1980S Decade of Adjustment

Refers to the 1980s, when many African countries implemented Structural Adjustment Programs under IMF and World Bank guidance.
- Characterized by austerity, privatization, and market liberalization, the period aimed to stabilize economies but often led to social hardship, weakened state capacity, and political unrest.

Extractive Economy

Economies heavily dependent on the extraction and export of natural resources such as minerals, oil, or gas.
- In African politics, extractive economies often generate rent-seeking, corruption, and weak diversification, shaping state power and sometimes fueling conflict rather than broad-based development.

Resource Curse

refers to the paradox where countries rich in natural resources experience weaker governance, corruption, conflict, and slower economic development than resource-poor states.

Sovereign Wealth fund

a state-owned investment fund that manages surplus revenues—often from natural resources like oil or minerals—to stabilize the economy and support long-term national development.

alluvial diamonds

In Africa are diamonds eroded from primary kimberlite sources and deposited in riverbeds, floodplains, and coastal sediments, making them accessible with low technology; this ease of extraction has historically enabled informal mining, smuggling, warlord financing, and conflicts such as those in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Angola, while also complicating state regulation and revenue collection.

1970s Oil Crisis

The 1970s oil crises (1973 and 1979) impacted Africa by sharply increasing fuel import costs for most countries, triggering inflation, balance-of-payments crises, and heavy borrowing, while oil exporters like Nigeria and Algeria experienced revenue booms that often fueled patronage, corruption, and state expansion rather than long-term development, contributing to later debt crises and structural adjustment in the 1980s.

World Bank

role in Africa has focused on development financing and policy reform, particularly through loans and structural adjustment programs in the 1980s–1990s that aimed to stabilize economies but often reduced social spending and deepened inequality.

National Keynesianism

is an economic approach in which the state actively manages the national economy through public spending, state intervention, and protection of domestic industries to promote growth and stability.

Patrice Lumumba

Patrice Lumumba was the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1960) and a nationalist leader who opposed colonial control, whose assassination made him a symbol of African anti-imperialism.

Patrice Lumumba was assassinated in 1961 by Congolese rivals with the involvement and support of Belgian officials, and with indirect backing from the United States during the Cold War.

Jonas Savimbi

Jonas Savimbi was a charismatic and authoritarian Angolan rebel leader who founded and led UNITA, drawing support from the United States and apartheid South Africa during the Cold War, financing his movement largely through control of alluvial diamonds, and playing a central role in Angola’s civil war until he was killed by government forces in 2002, which helped bring the conflict to an end.

Reciprocal Assimilation

Reciprocal assimilation describes a mutual process of adaptation in which interacting groups—such as ethnic communities, migrants and host societies, or colonial and indigenous elites—each change their practices, identities, and institutions through sustained contact, often producing hybrid cultures, shared political norms, or blended power structures rather than one-sided assimilation.

JIHADISTS + Globalization

Globalization has enabled jihadist groups to operate transnationally by using the internet and social media for recruitment and propaganda, informal global financial networks to move funds, porous borders to mobilize fighters, and global grievances—such as foreign intervention and economic inequality—to frame local conflicts as part of a broader global jihad.

m23

M23 (the March 23 Movement) is an armed rebel group in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo that emerged in 2012 from former CNDP fighters, citing the government’s failure to implement the 2009 peace accord, and it has repeatedly captured territory in North Kivu amid allegations of Rwandan support, exploiting regional ethnic tensions, weak state control, and the mineral-rich context of eastern Congo.

Hutu Militants

Hutu militants in the Great Lakes region—especially the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR)—originated from former Rwandan army members and Interahamwe militia who fled to eastern Congo after the 1994 genocide, where they entrenched themselves in weakly governed areas, exploited local resources, targeted civilians, and became a central justification for repeated foreign interventions and rebel movements such as Rwanda’s involvement against them in eastern DRC.