Recipient States in an Asymmetric System

Abstract

This book departs from the perspective that leading analyses of weaker, recipient states in the international system are limited by default as they ontologically refuse to take those states as normal states in International Relations. ‘Normality’ is hereby defined by the idea of a state that, regardless of world region, is capable of defining political goals and underlying strategies of pursuit of such goals. In other words, recipient states in sub-Saharan Africa are taken — both theoretically and empirically — as characterised by the same attributes as any other states, including Western, donor states.