Africa as an Agent of International Relations Knowledge

Abstract

The inability of existing International Relations (IR) to deal with the challenges confronting the world today has led to a reappraisal of the discipline as a whole, accompanied by increasingly audible calls for disciplinary openness and a search for new perspectives that might address these shortcomings. Neuman’s (1998, p. 1) observation that ‘changes in the international system in general, and in the Third World in particular, seem to be outpacing developments in International Relations Theory’ summarizes many of these views. The same is true of Ayoob’s concern that, ‘since much of the theoretically sophisticated IR analysis is based on premises that are of limited relevance, it does not reflect many of the major realities in the contemporary international system’ (2002, p. 30). In particular, a number of IR scholars¹ have emphasized the lack of engagement with the developing world, Africa in particular, in the field as a whole. While some have focused on how Africa is overlooked as an important object of study, others have lamented the unsatisfactory tools with which IR tries to make sense of Africa.