African Agency Post-2015: The Roles of Regional Powers and Developmental States in Regional Integration

Abstract

African “agency”—the ways in which Africa’s political, economic, social, and security actors can and do exert influence both on the continent and in global politics, as opposed to simply being passive targets or victims of others’ actions— is an effect not only of the continent’s regional powers, but also of its developing state and nonstate networks.1 If “regional integration” is redefined as more than just a set of formal, interstate relationships, it will become apparent that Africa has already experienced more regional integration and more expansion of African agency than has sometimes been appreciated. After half a century of formal independence, the continent is no longer overly dependent but self-sustaining, and is becoming a policymaker rather than a perpetual “policy-taker.” William Brown anticipates that “future work on African agency [will] be able to engage seriously with the continent’s role in international politics in a way that presents Africa as actor and not just acted upon; and a historical agent, and not just history’s recipient.”2