To Negotiate or Not-to Negotiate with the FDLR Rebels? President Kikwete and Tanzania’s Foreign Policy towards Rwanda (2013–2015)

Abstract

Abstract This article challenges traditional approaches to inter-state relations and reinforces the actor-specific nature of foreign policy analysis. Using individual decision-making theory based on the personalities of key political actors, this article proposes a case study on the foreign policy decision outcome by Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete, in response to the 2013 diplomatic row with Rwanda. Tanzania’s relations with Rwanda have historically been cordial. However, President Kikwete’s proposal for Rwanda to negotiate with the rebel group Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Rwanda (FDLR) at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa in 2013 was not well received by Rwanda. The FDLR is a Hutu rebel outfit based in Eastern DRC, consisting of surviving Hutus who had fled into DRC, after the 1994 genocide. This article argues that in view of the diplomatic row that ensued, Kikwete’s response supports current theories on the role played by a key political actor’s personality in the foreign policy decision-making process.