Reinterpreting Domestic Sources of Zambia’s Foreign Policy: The Party and the President

Abstract

This article examines the domestic factors that have determined and influenced Zambia’s foreign policy. While this attempt has not been as successful as one would wish, some useful insights are obtainable through analysis of the role of the governing parties from the liberation hero and founding President Kenneth Kaunda and the United National Independence Party (UNIP) and subsequent heads of state and their respective parties, the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), the Patriotic Front (PF) and the United Party for National Development (UPND), that have led the country throughout this period. The article contributes to both the rational-actor model and spatial leadership model which measures differential changes in foreign policy decision-making across regimes. The model is a major contribution to the development of viable analysis in changing foreign policy in emerging nations and is an enduring contribution to the modern foreign analysis. This article is an interesting and exciting addition to this model. It also contributes to the discourse on domestic issues that determine political behavior in international affairs. In particular, it discusses the subtleties of presidential power and demonstrates that in the case of Zambia, changes in foreign policy decisions across regimes are mediated by the intervention and personal interests of the president and the influence of the governing parties.