Collective Self-Reliance: Restarting the Concept in the Sahel in the Context of a Multipolarizing World Order

Abstract

This article is devoted to restarting the concept of “Collective Self-Reliance” (CSR) taking into account the emergence of a multipolar world. Particular attention is paid to the attempts of African countries to get out of the center-periphery model of dependent development through the implementation of this concept. The theoretical foundations of the CSR concept, enshrined in the Arusha Declaration of 1967, the Arusha Program for Collective Self-Reliance and Framework for Negotiations of 1979, and in a number of documents of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the African Union (AU), are presented. The attitude towards CSR is shown in the works of Western experts, scholars from the USSR and Russia, as well as contemporary researchers from the former republics of Yugoslavia. Interpretations of the concept are given, based on the works of Johan Galtung, Samir Amin, and German experts. The practice of applying the concept in Burkina Faso and the neighboring countries, as well as in Tanzania, is shown. A critical analysis of the results of the implementation of the concept and the possibilities of its implementation in the modern realities of global capitalism was carried out. Particular attention is paid to the levels of implementation of the concept as well as the theory and practice of delinking – a temporary decoupling of economic ties with the countries of the “collective West”. It is concluded that, in the 2020s, multi-level implementation of the CSR concept (local, country level, Alliance of Sahel States level, “World Majority” level) seems even more realistic than at the time of its development. This is facilitated by the dominance of non-Western economies in the global framework, macrohistorical processes of decoupling, as well as the key role of the “World Majority” countries in the current economic ties of the Sahel countries. A limiting factor in this is the large-scale flow of Western aid to the region.