Suggested Reading
African international relations are explored in a number of recent works. Two recommended volumes investigate the role of extracontinental powers in Africa after the Cold War, including the major Western powers along with Russia, China, Japan, India, the UN, the EU, and international financial institutions. See Ian Taylor and Paul Williams, eds., Africa in International Politics: External Involvement on the Continent (New York: Routledge, 2004); and Ian Taylor, The International Relations of Sub-Saharan Africa (New York: Continuum, 2010). John W. Harbeson and Donald Rothchild, eds., Africa in World Politics: Engaging a Changing World Order, 5th ed. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2013), explores interstate conflict, the impact of outside investment and externally induced political reforms, and the role of international peacekeeping forces. Errol A. Henderson, African Realism? International Relations Theory and Africa’s Wars in the Postcolonial Era (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Little-field, 2015), challenges the applicability of Eurocentric international relations theories to African cases and explores the relationship between Africa’s domestic and international conflicts.
Several books examine the role of the UN in the post–World War II international order. Mark Mazower, No Enchanted Palace: The End of Empire and the Ideological Origins of the United Nations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013), argues that the UN was created to protect the interests of empire but was reshaped by formerly colonized states and transformed into an instrument for ending the old imperial order. David L. Bosco, Five to Rule Them All: The UN Security Council and the Making of the Modern World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), explores the role of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council in shaping the post–Cold War world. A number of works investigate UN humanitarian and peacekeeping missions in Africa, elucidating the reasons for their success or failure. See Andrzej Sitkowski, UN Peacekeeping: Myth and Reality (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006); Norrie MacQueen, Humanitarian Intervention and the United Nations (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011); Norrie MacQueen, United Nations Peacekeeping in Africa since 1960 (London: Pearson Education, 2002); Adekeye Adebajo, UN Peacekeeping in Africa: From the Suez Crisis to the Sudan Conflicts (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2011); and Adekeye Adebajo, The Curse of Berlin: Africa after the Cold War (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010).
Other books examine international peacekeeping in Africa. Two wide-ranging studies are particularly useful: Adebajo, UN Peacekeeping in Africa (mentioned previously); and Marco Wyss and Thierry Tardy, eds., Peacekeeping in Africa: The Evolving Security Structure (New York: Routledge, 2014), which considers UN, AU, EU, and ECOWAS operations, as well as unilateral actions by outside powers. For the role of African regional organizations and peacekeeping forces, see David J. Francis, Uniting Africa: Building Regional Peace and Security Systems (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006); and Abou Jeng, Peacebuilding in the African Union: Law, Philosophy and Practice (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012).
A number of recommended works consider the role of subregional peacekeeping forces. The strengths and weaknesses of ECOWAS peacekeeping missions in West Africa are investigated in Adekeye Abebajo, ed., Building Peace in West Africa: Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea-Bissau (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2002); Adekeye Adebajo and Ismail Rashid, eds., West Africa’s Security Challenges: Building Peace in a Troubled Region (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2004); Adekeye Adebajo, Liberia’s Civil War: Nigeria, ECOMOG, and Regional Security in West Africa (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2002); and Karl Magyar and Earl Conteh-Morgan, eds., Peacekeeping in Africa: ECOMOG in Liberia (New York: St. Martin’s, 1998). SADC’s efforts in Southern Africa are considered in Laurie Nathan, Community of Insecurity: SADC’s Struggle for Peace and Security in Southern Africa (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2012).
Other studies examine the hegemonic influence of particular countries on the African continent. Adebajo, The Curse of Berlin (mentioned previously), considers South Africa, Nigeria, China, France, and the United States. Dane F. Smith Jr., U.S. Peacefare: Organizing American Peace-Building Operations (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2010), written by a diplomatic insider, focuses on the role of the United States in postconflict peace building. Bruno Charbonneau, France and the New Imperialism: Security Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2008), investigates the impact of French security and cooperation policies in postindependence Africa and argues that French intervention denied Africans political freedom and sustained their political, economic, and social domination by outsiders. The growing role of China in Africa is considered in Deborah Bräutigam, The Dragon’s Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009); Ian Taylor, China’s New Role in Africa (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2008); David H. Shinn and Joshua Eisenman, China and Africa: A Century of Engagement (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012); and Howard W. French, China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa (New York: Knopf, 2014). Ian Taylor, Africa Rising? BRICS—Diversifying Dependency (Martlesham, UK: James Currey, 2014), provides a critical examination of the roles of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa in post–Cold War Africa, arguing that the emerging economies of the Global South, like the Western powers before them, have an interest in perpetuating an unequal system that consigns Africa to the bottom rung.
The emergence of South Africa as both a regional and continental player is considered in several works. Chris Alden and Maxi Schoeman explore South Africa’s growing economic involvement in Africa and its expanding political role on the continent and the global stage. See Chris Alden and Maxi Schoeman, “South Africa in the Company of Giants: The Search for Leadership in a Transforming Global Order,” International Affairs 89, no. 1 (January 2013): 111–29; and Chris Alden and Maxi Schoeman, “South Africa’s Symbolic Hegemony in Africa,” International Politics 52, no. 2 (2015): 239–54. William G. Martin, South Africa and the World Economy (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2013), examines the transformation of South African political and economic power from the era of colonialism and white minority rule to the present, marked by its recent alliances with Northern industrialized powers and new challenges from Asia. Chris Alden and Miles Soko, “South Africa’s Economic Relations with Africa: Hegemony and Its Discontents,” Journal of Modern African Studies 43, no. 3 (September 2005): 367–92, differentiates between the roles played by the regional bodies, SADC and the Southern African Customs Union, on the one hand, and by South Africa’s private and parastatal corporations, on the other. Fred Ahwireng-Obeng and Patrick J. McGowan examine the impact of South African trade, investment, and infrastructure and telecommunications developments in Africa in a two-part article: Fred Ahwireng-Obeng and Patrick J. McGowan, “Partner or Hegemon: South Africa in Africa, Part I,” Journal of Contemporary African Studies 16, no. 1 (January 1998): 5–38; and Patrick J. McGowan and Fred Ahwireng-Obeng, “Partner or Hegemon: South Africa in Africa, Part II,” Journal of Contemporary African Studies 16, no. 2 (July 1998): 165–95. Recent developments in South African foreign policy are explored in Chris Alden and Garth le Pere, South Africa’s Post-Apartheid Foreign Policy: From Reconciliation to Renewal? Adelphi Paper 362 (London: International Institute for Strategic Studies, 2003); and Laurie Nathan, “Consistencies and Inconsistencies in South Africa Foreign Policy,” International Affairs 81, no. 2 (March 2005): 361–72. Pretoria’s role in conflict mediation in Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, the DRC, and Sudan are assessed in Kurt Shillinger, Africa’s Peacemaker? Lessons from South African Conflict Mediation (Johannesburg: Jacana Media, 2009).
For the role of warlords in post–Cold War African conflicts, see two important books by William Reno: Warlord Politics and African States (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1998), and Warfare in Independent Africa (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
For the role of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Africa, see the Suggested Reading for chapter 2.