African Diplomats Research Articles

Tracing Diplomatic Tutelage: (Post)colonial Pedagogies and the Training of African Diplomats

Abstract Throughout the twentieth century, colonies emerged from the so-called tutelage of European imperial powers to represent themselves as sovereign states. One consequence of this change was an expansion in overseas diplomatic training, aimed at inducting into international life the hundreds of diplomats required to staff new foreign services. This paper interrogates the pedagogical and (geo)political practice of tutelage—where guardianship and instruction are held in tension—in order to shine a critical spotlight on programs training African diplomats, hosted in Britain, France, and Switzerland, and later in Cameroon and Kenya. In exploring practices of tutelage both within the classroom and at the international scale, we bring to the fore hitherto overlooked relational and temporal dimensions of tutelage that provide new insights into enduring paternalistic power relations as well as possibilities for agency and resistance. We trace the legacies of colonialism within these training programs but are also attentive to the ways trainers problematized the generalizability of their knowledge and pedagogy, and how African diplomats-in-training resisted relations of tutelage. In dialogue with scholarship on socialization and international education, we develop an enhanced conceptualization of tutelage that provides analytical purchase on inter-scalar relationships in world politics during and beyond formal decolonization.

Determinants of the Qualities of Diplomats in African Countries in the Western Context

This article undertakes a comprehensive exploration of the historical evolution of diplomacy in African countries within the Western context, scrutinizing traditional practices, post-colonial transformations, and the enduring impact of milestones like the struggle against apartheid. While diplomacy in this context is vital for international cooperation, economic partnerships, and the projection of national interests, there persist gaps in understanding the determinants shaping diplomats' qualities.The study addresses these gaps by thoroughly examining cultural factors, the impact of educational qualifications, the role of professional experience, and the influence of political challenges on diplomatic effectiveness. Through qualitative methodologies, including purposive sampling and thematic analysis, the research strategically selects cases aligned with the specific focus on diplomatic qualities, ensuring relevance and depth in exploring the nuances of diplomatic effectiveness.Secondary sources, such as academic literature, historical documents, and theoretical frameworks, play a crucial role, contributing to a comprehensive exploration of the subject matter. The combination of purposive sampling and thematic analysis, supported by secondary sources, enhances the robustness of the research design, facilitating a nuanced investigation into the determinants shaping diplomatic effectiveness.The determinants of diplomatic qualities, explored through cultural factors, educational background, and professional experience, offer a holistic understanding of how African diplomats navigate international diplomacy successfully. The study's findings contribute to a robust foundation for policymakers and practitioners to enhance diplomatic strategies, training programs, and educational curricula, ensuring the continued effectiveness of African diplomats in the Western context. Overall, this research provides valuable insights that can inform diplomatic practices, training initiatives, and educational approaches to meet the evolving demands of the African-Western diplomatic landscape.

Indonesia’s African Foreign Policy Shift under President Jokowi

Under President Jokowi’s leadership, Indonesia seems to have made Africa a foreign policy priority. Previously bounded by Bandung romanticism and lacking understanding on the contemporary strategic importance of Africa, Indonesia finally launched its own Africa+1 forum in April 2018 in Bali, the Indonesia Africa Forum (IAF), following an economic diplomacy framework and will to do business with Africa. For Jokowi, Bandung should be leveraged to mean business. Indonesia had previously struggled to institutionalize Asia-Africa intercontinental multilateralism through the New Africa-Asia Strategic Partnership (NAASP) launched during the 2005 Asia Africa Summit in Jakarta organized to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Bandung Conference; while other major Asian powers such as Japan, China, Malaysia, India or South Korea developed their own political, economic and cultural platforms with African countries. Closing a clear research gap, this original study allows a better comprehension of this foreign policy shift and of Indonesia's contemporary foreign policy towards Africa within Global Africa Studies. For more pragmatism and flexibility, this qualitative research, notably based on in-depth interviews with Indonesian and African diplomats, uses an eclectic analysis allowing a holistic approach combining levels of analysis and types of factors; thus increasing explanatory power.

‘African digital diplomacy: Emergence, evolution, and the future’

ABSTRACT Digital diplomacy has become a major topic of international interdisciplinary analysis. Aimed at making an African contribution to knowledge, this article charts the emergence of digital diplomacy and presents evidence of unfolding practices and discussions in the African digital diplomacy sphere. The empirical segment of the article draws on data from 21 virtual sessions on African digital diplomacy, convened between July and August 2020 and involving over 50 African diplomats. Based on open-source software as well as qualitative analysis, the study results show that the risks of digital diplomacy, particularly disinformation and misinformation, are main concerns for modern diplomats. The study offers suggestions for the enhancement of digital diplomacy practices and scholarship, particularly for African governments and civil society, including additional primary research on approaches and uses of digital tools, increased collaboration between academics and practitioners, and the embedding of digital diplomacy in the foreign policy strategies of African states.

Engaging science diplomacy for nanotechnology development in Africa

The concept of science diplomacy is gaining ground as a global strategy in addressing global concerns such as global peace, insecurity, climate change and environmental impact. This study reduces science diplomacy to an effective means for the strategic development of nanotechnology in Africa. African nations are currently not encouragingly close to the leading nations in nanotechnology, yet there seem to be extant diplomatic relationship with many of these forefront nations. African diplomats are state actors in science diplomacy to propose foreign policies that will meet the domestic demand for science and technology development in Africa, especially for emerging technologies like nanotechnology. The necessity of inclusion of competent scientists with diplomatic skills as members of the diplomatic corps is recommended here as one of the ways to develop nanotechnology in Africa. The scientist diplomats will function to foster international scientific collaborations, drive platforms for national research facility development and for non-state actors to thrive in their domestic nano-research. Scientifically informed foreign policies are presented here to have potentials to significantly assist Africa in developing nanotechnology and provide pathways for overcoming the numerous constraints to nanotechnology development in Africa. Critical areas of intervention include human capacity development, national nano-research laboratory facilities, platforms for institutional collaborations, post-graduate student training and robust exchange programs. These machineries also benefit independent individual researchers by leveraging on the international networks created by science attachés through science diplomacy.

“There are No Votes in Africa”?: Australia, Africa and the UN Security Council

This article examines how Australia's successful campaign for a non‐permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) (2008‐12) and its subsequent term on the Council (2013‐14) both encouraged and impacted on the country's engagement with Africa. Drawing on extensive interviews with senior Australian politicians and government officials with intimate knowledge of the country's campaign for the UNSC and its time on the Council, as well as with senior African diplomats, the article contributes new knowledge on how Canberra campaigned to secure African UN votes and how it engaged with the Council's Africa‐dominated agenda. The article concludes by evaluating the legacy of this period of high engagement for both ongoing Australia‐Africa relations and Australia's new campaign for a UNSC seat during the 2029‐30 term.

Birth of a norm champion: how South Africa came to support the NPT’s indefinite extension

ABSTRACTIn 1995, South Africa was in a special position. It was: a new party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the first country to voluntarily renounce nuclear weapons, led by a charismatic leader, and seen as a champion of disarmament principles. Yet South Africa’s new leaders were also interested in affirming their position within the Non-Aligned Movement, which was adamantly opposed to the NPT’s indefinite extension. Why, then, did South Africa decide to support the indefinite extension of the NPT in 1995? Existing scholarship has ascribed too much credit to pressure from the United States, overlooking domestic debates in South Africa and the bifurcation between professional diplomats and political elites. This article, building on new archival sources and in-depth oral-history interviews with major actors, demonstrates that South African diplomats opposed indefinite extension while South African policy elites allocated little attention to the topic until late in the game. The findings contribute to our understanding of South Africa’s norm entrepreneurship, as well as the politics of global nonproliferation.

The enemy within: rethinking arms availability in sub-Saharan Africa

Over the past decade small arms and light weapons availability has been singled out as one of sub-Saharan Africa's highest profile challenges. Yet the construction of the threat of arms availability as one of authorised trade and illicit trafficking across international borders has resulted in a narrow focus on regulating lawful exports and imports and brokers. While these are real and legitimate concerns, the authors contend that small arms and light weapons availability should be re-evaluated as a complex social phenomenon involving dynamic supply and demand dimensions. A limited emphasis on controlling authorised transfers to war zones glosses over the challenges of illegal markets, the gradual emergence of national arms production capacities across Africa and the systematic diversion of weapons and ammunition surplus from the domestic stocks of security services into civilian hands. It also obscures a more dynamic landscape of armed violence across the continent which extends beyond war zones. Whilst the conventional interpretation of arms availability is favoured by African diplomats and international arms control experts, such a reading potentially obscures the weaknesses of security governance and the myriad motivations and means shaping small arms and light weapons acquisition and misuse amongst armed groups and civilians.

Africa and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

This article examines the efforts of a transnational indigenous peoples' civil society network to convince African states to the support the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Indigenous peoples' activism with regards the UNDRIP was successful despite the challenges. The author argues that success with UNDRIP was due to the effectiveness of the main African transnational indigenous peoples' network, though there were favourable conditions including a surge of idealism associated with African bloc politics at the United Nations, South Africa's democratisation and focus on human rights, a global awareness of the need for more effective human rights mechanisms for non-dominant peoples and an unwillingness by Africa to forsake the benefits and alliances of the international system. The emergence of an indigenous peoples' movement in Africa represents an evolution of civil society on the continent and the lobbying in favour of UNDRIP was a measure of its capacity. The reactions of African diplomats provide an opportunity to examine Africa's relationship with its own legal and cultural traditions, its openness to pluralist forms of governance and non-state institutions in post-colonial regimes, as well as Africa's relationship with the international human rights system.

EPA’s: Welkome stimulans voor samenwerking of mogelijke bron voor desintegratie?

This article addresses the controversial impact of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union (EU) and its former colonies in Africa. The policy turn of the EU goes along with a sharp debate in which the EU portrays itself as a friend of the development countries while NGOs depict the Union as a wolf in sheepskin. Both sides defend strong arguments in favour and against EPAs. But how do the ACPs themselves look at the EPAs? By scrutinizing the images of ACP representatives we go beyond the polarised EPA debate. More specifically, the article deals with the question whether EPAs will stimulate or hinder regional integration in Eastern Africa. First, we summarize the diverging positions in the academic debate on this issue, structured around three dimensions: the impact of the EPA negotiation process, the consequences of implementation of these agreements, and the EU’s putative normative objectives in this area. Second, we explore each of these dimensions by analyzing the perception from Eastern African policy-makers on the basis of semi-structured interviews and a survey questionnaire. Researching the external perception of the EU’s policies provides an alternative way to gauge the possible consequences of EPAs on regional integration in Eastern Africa. The final section contains some tentative conclusions, which suggest that the view of East African diplomats is largely in line with the more ‘positive’ EU discourse, while parliamentarians make a more ‘negative’ assessment of the impact of EPAs for regional integration. In addition, members of the East African Community are more convinced of beneficial effects of EPAs on regional integration. The article ends with some explanations for these findings and some orientations for further research.

Japan and the development of Africa: A preliminary evaluation of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development

From the early 1960s to the late 1980s, relations between Japan and subSaharan Africa were very low-key. This, Japanese policy-makers proclaimed, was because Japan had no history of colonial involvement in Africa, and the lack of historical guilt exempted their country from participating in Africa's economic development. Since the early 1990s, however, Japan has been reassessing its relations with the countries in the region and now seems to have decided on a more pro-active approach to African affairs organized through the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD). THIS ARTICLE ATTEMPTS TO BRING INTO FOCUS JAPAN'S RECENT INITIATIVES towards Africa as orchestrated through the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD). The latter is perceived as a process, in conformity with what Chris Alden rightly refers to as Japan's 'allencompassing approach to growth and development',' having integrated into its wider dimensions aspects of neo-liberal stipulations for good governance and economic progress. Officially, the TICAD is defined as a 'regional initiative for Africa' initiated by the joint effort of the government of Japan, the United Nations and the Global Coalition for Africa (GCA), and it 'involves a variety of stakeholders including all African countries, international agencies and the civil society'.2 There is therefore a great deal of emphasis within the TICAD framework on its inclusive orientation as well as on the idea of the ownership by African nations of the development process within their respective countries. According to Japanese policy-makers, the TICAD is Japan's way of highlighting Africa's developmental problems, and of reminding the international community that the continent's problems did not melt away with Kweku Ampiah teaches at the University of Stirling, Scotland. This article benefits from interviews conducted in Tokyo in January 2004 with African diplomats and Japanese officials. 1. Chris Alden, 'The chrysanthemum and the protea: re-inventing Japanese-South African relations after apartheid', African Affairs 101, 404 (2002), p. 383. 2. See the TICAD website, www.gca-cma.org/eticad.htm. 97

Ideas within a context of power: the African group in an evolving UNCTAD

This article considers the diplomatic strategies of African states within an evolving United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). It proposes that the prominence of certain ideas about economic development rises and falls not so much as a result of the nature of the ideas themselves, but as a result of opportunities made and unmade by the world economy. The world economy in turn changes the work mandates of international economic organisations like UNCTAD. The trajectory of African diplomatic strategies is important because it calls into question recent literature in international relations theory focusing almost exclusively on the experiences of industrialised states. In the case of African ideas in UNCTAD, underlying variables associated with the world economy destroyed the remnants of the Group of 77 coalition which had served as an agent for African representatives in UNCTAD. African diplomats have tried to realise whatever objectives they can in the changed circumstances without necessarily changing their ideas about development.

No Diplomatic Immunity: African Diplomats, the State Department, and Civil Rights, 1961-1964

No Diplomatic Immunity: African Diplomats, the State Department, and Civil Rights, 1961-1964

The pattern of diplomatic sanctions against South Africa 1948–1994

South Africa was the object of a concerted international campaign of diplomatic isolation against the policy of apartheid during the era of National Party rule between 1948 and 1994. Part of the isolation was self-inflicted with the rejection of states with communist governments or the presence of African diplomats. South Africa became one of the international “pariah” states. The country therefore maintained only a small foreign service, which was spatially concentrated, notably in western Europe and North America. Attempts to expand diplomatic contacts before 1990 were limited mainly to Latin America as the foreign response was essentially hostile. The end of the Cold War enabled South Africa to extend its representation abroad, particularly in eastern Europe, but the majority of African and Asian states only established formal ties with the country following the first universal franchise elections and the installation of President Nelson Mandela as the first African head of state in May 1994.

Racism Toward Black African Diplomats During the Kennedy Administration

When President John F. Kennedy came to office in January 1961, the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union had already spread to Black Africa where more than a dozen nations had recently won their independence. The two superpowers, for example, supported the opposing sides in a bitter civil war in the Congo (now Zaire), and in that conflict the United States seemed to have backed the weaker faction. Indeed, there was widespread belief in the Kennedy Administration that America was losing in the battle for the hearts and minds of the Congolese in particular and Black Africans in general (Schlesinger, 1965: 508-520).1 While the Kennedy Administration watched with mounting concern as America's political fortunes in Africa seemingly waned, events were unfolding at home which were likely to push Black Africa further toward the Soviet Union, into its orbit. Scores of African diplomats had begun to establish residence in Washington, D.C. and New York City, and it was a foregone conclusion that they would be

The Rise and Fall of Afro-Asian Solidarity

After signing treaty of friendship in Djakarta on April 1, 1961, Communist China and Indonesia repeatedly called for a AfroAsian Conference in shortest time. Special emissaries persistently visited capitals of Asia and Africa and eventually succeeded in bringing representatives of twenty-two nations to Djakarta in April 1964, for Preparatory Meeting. There it was decided to hold Second Bandung on March 10, 1965. The selection of host government was left to recently created Organization of African Unity. The provisional agenda agreed upon in Djakarta provided, among other topics, for discussions concerning renunciation of threat or use of force in international relations and strengthening United Nations. The eagerness of Communist China and Indonesia to discuss such matters should have impressed Asian and African diplomats as quite ironical. As result of Sino-Soviet dispute, Asia and Africa had been deluged with flood of polemical tracts expounding Chinese Communist views on domestic and international functions of violence and on inevitability of war. For their part, Indonesians, by applying constant military and political pressure on Malaysia since September 1963, were practicing what Chinese were preaching. As for future of United Nations, promoters of Second Bandung Conference had expressed their views candidly in joint SinoIndonesian statement issued in Peking on January 28, 1965. Following President Sukarno's decision to withdraw from United Nations, despite numerous Asian and African appeals to reconsider this nihilistic gesture, joint statement proclaimed that the United Nations cannot reflect anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist desire of people of world, nor can it organizationally reflect reality in which new emerging and revolutionary forces have far outstripped decadent forces. Notice had thus been served that participants in an African-Asian conference might be confronted with an uncomfortable choice between United Nations, in which smaller countries play an important role, and an unpredictable new organization of New Emerging Forces. As token of his determination, President Sukarno had laid, on April 19, 1965, cornerstone of complex of buildings, to be erected in Djakarta