The Challenges and Benefits for African States Within Foreign Policy
VHUHTHUHAWE MAPHOLI
722037
ESSAY TOPIC 2
The Challenges and Benefits for African States within Foreign Policy
The study of Foreign Policy usually focuses on strong states and less common on Third World countries because Third World countries are regarded as weak and vulnerable. The following essay will entail the cooperation between African Sates as visionary for a number of individuals in Africa, from Thabo Mbeki to Kwame Nkrumah. With the recent events surrounding the election of leadership within the African Union, this essay will determine the challenges and benefits for African states to be united in their Foreign Policy. In conclusion, the essay will provide a brief summary of the information provided and close off the essay.
Foreign Policy is a combination of diverse means and activities which are dedicated to understanding and explaining foreign policy processes, furthermore the behaviour of significant actors in the international system (Neack et al, 1995). Foreign policy seeks to analyse the investigative process, which primarily aims to examine the behaviour of international units, mostly states, towards their external environment that are beyond their material borders (Sekhri, 2009: 423). In addition, according to Gerner, foreign policy is a sphere and the consequent need to move between individual, state and systemic levels of analysis (Gerner, 1995).
Challenges
Role perceptions originate from factors and determinants of which are related to the states capabilities, wealth (riches) and role performances which require an active influential foreign policy (Sekhri, 1995: 428). However strong capabilities are not available in a number of poor Third World counties. Thus most Third World countries are impoverished, powerless and unable to play major roles internationally and regionally (Sekhri, 1995: 428). As a result, the lacks of strong capabilities in Third World countries lead to situations such as “self-contained” foreign policy – ‘keeping myself to myself’ (Sekhri, 1995: 428). Therefore most Third World countries are challenged with the inability to merge with other mutual countries due to their minimum strength in capabilities.