Understanding African States in International Relations: On Analytics of Sovereignty versus Elite Governmentality

Abstract

The African state, unlike its European counterpart is often described as lacking the attributes sovereignty, hence it is variously described as a lame leviathan with limited agency in international affairs. By extension, its experiences such as the adoption of neoliberalism and it’s associated ‘conditionalites’ are said to be externally imposed with minimum input from the continent’s governing elites. This line of thinking presents African systems as passive, a-political and bereft of authentic interests in international affairs. The dominance of this perspective has resulted in a one-sided, limited account of African experiences which run much deeper than what the prevailing epistemological posture will make us believe. This paper seeks to go beyond the ensuing analytical limitations by unpacking the international experiences of African states from the stand point of its governing elites. Using the notion of governmentality, I argue that the latter are an autonomous constituency whose engagements are defined by commonalties of interests with their counterparts in the global arena. Hence the options they adopt are not merely crude impositions, but the result of negotiations and horse trading geared toward enhancing their agency.