Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-8zxtt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-08T05:58:52.777Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Intra-national IR in Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2010

DOUGLAS LEMKE
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Scholars debate whether Eurocentric theories of International Relations (IR) offer useful explanations of African international politics. They also debate the applicability of Eurocentric theories of state making for understanding African state making in the post-colonial era. I argue that theories like realism and war-and-state-making appear inconsistent with African political reality because when IR scholars apply these theories to Africa, they study the wrong actors. The ‘right’ actors for understanding these theories include not only the official states IR scholars traditionally analyse, but also all of the autonomous political entities that control territory, possess military resources, and struggle to survive under anarchy. I substantiate my claims about the usefulness and necessity of expanding the roster of actors studied with an historical narrative of the first six years of Congo's independence. During this time six autonomous political entities, in addition to the one official state, warred with each other, allied with each other, and struggled to make states.

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , January 2011 , pp. 49 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Brown, William, ‘Africa and International Relations: A Comment on IR Theory, Anarchy and Statehood’, Review of International Studies, 32:1 (2006), pp. 119–143CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

2 Clapham, Christopher, ‘Degrees of Statehood’, Review of International Studies, 24:2 (1998), pp. 143–157CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

3 A review essay summarising many studies of African IR and thus motivating this claim is Lemke, Douglas, ‘African Lessons for International Relations Research’, World Politics, 56:1 (2003), pp. 114–138CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

4 Brown, ‘Africa and International Relations’, pp. 121, 127.

5 Varying critical intensities characterise the contributions to Neuman, Stephanie G. (ed.), International Relations Theory and the Third World (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998)Google Scholar , and to Dunn, Kevin C. and Shaw, Timothy M. (eds), Africa's Challenge to International Relations Theory (New York: Palgrave, 2001)Google Scholar . Rather than carefully delineate Africanist scholars into different critical camps, I refer readers to the thoughtful discussion in Brown, ‘Africa and International Relations’, specifically pp. 120–2. I restrict myself to specific citations where possible, and use ‘Africanist critique’ or ‘IR theory’ only as a short hand for what I recognise to be varied scholarly groups.

6 Brown, ‘Africa and International Relations’, pp. 125–6; and Herbst, Jeffrey, States and Power in Africa (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000), p. 105.Google Scholar Both emphases added.

7 Ibid., both quotes p. 129.

8 Ibid., pp. 142–3.

9 Waltz, Kenneth, Theory of International Politics (New York: McGraw Hill Publishing Company, 1979), p. 121Google Scholar .

10 Waltz, , Theory of International Politics, p. 111Google Scholar , emphasis added.

11 Ibid., p. 114, emphases added.

12 Brown, ‘Africa and International Relations’, p. 137, emphases added.

13 Englebert, Pierre, State Legitimacy and Development in Africa (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000)Google Scholar , discusses capacity and legitimacy among African political units.

14 Waltz, , Theory of International Politics, p. 116Google Scholar , emphasis added.

15 To offset concerns that I am cherry picking obscure quotes from Waltz, a more recent but equally prominent American neo-realist writes: ‘Although the focus in this study is on the state system, realist logic can be applied to other kinds of anarchic systems. After all, it is the absence of central authority, not any special characteristics of states, that causes them to compete for power.’ Mearsheimer, John, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2001), p. 414Google Scholar .

16 Lemke, Douglas, Regions of War and Peace (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002)Google Scholar , particularly chap. 7; Henderson, Errol, ‘Disturbing the Peace’, British Journal of Political Science (forthcoming)Google Scholar ; Englebert, Pierre and Hummel, Rebecca, ‘Understanding Africa's Secessionist Deficit’, African Affairs, 104:416 (2005), pp. 399–427Google Scholar .

17 Sources include: Lemarchand, Rene, Political Awakening in the Belgian Congo (Berkeley, CA: The University of California Press, 1964)Google Scholar ; Young, Crawford, Politics in the Congo (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965)Google Scholar ; Callaghy, Thomas, The State-Society Struggle: Zaire in Comparative Perspective (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984)Google Scholar ; Young, Crawford and Turner, Thomas, The Rise and Decline of the Zairian State (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985)Google Scholar ; and Nzongola-Ntalaja, Georges, The Congo from Leopold to Kabila (London: Zed Books, 2002)Google Scholar .

18 A rare exception is offered by Dunn, Kevin, Imagining the Congo (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar , specifically chap. 3.

19 Correlates of War Project (COW) state criteria are introduced in Russett, Bruce, Singer, J. David, and D. Small, Melvin, ‘National Political Units in the 20th Century’, American Political Science Review, 62:3 (1968), pp. 932–951Google Scholar .

20 See, for example, Stuart Bremer with Ghosn, Faten, ‘Defining States’, Conflict Management and Peace Science, 20:1 (2003), pp. 21–41Google Scholar .

21 Gleditsch, Kristian and Ward, Michael D., ‘A Revised List of Independent States Since the Congress of Vienna’, International Interactions, 25:4 (1999), p. 399CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

22 Debates about the inconsistent availability of legal recognition, and of the problems associated with it, are found in Krasner, Stephen, Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999)Google Scholar ; Englebert, State Legitimacy and Development in Africa, chap. 8; and Herbst, Jeffrey, ‘Let Them Fail’, in Rotberg, Robert (ed.), When States Fail: Causes and Consequences (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004)Google Scholar .

23 Callaghy, , The State-Society Struggle, p. 154Google Scholar ; see also, Kaplan, Irving, Zaire: A Country Study (Washington, DC: American University Press, 1979)Google Scholar , specifically p. 49.

24 For troop estimates see Doyle, Michael and Sambanis, Nicholas, Making War and Building Peace (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006), p. 174Google Scholar , and for discussion of Katangan governance see Young, , Politics in the Congo, p. 331Google Scholar .

25 Lemarchand, Rene, ‘The Limits of Self-Determination: The Case of the Katanga Secession’, American Political Science Review, 56:2 (1962), pp. 404–416CrossRefGoogle Scholar , the 80 per cent figure is given on p. 405.

26 Ndikumana, Leonce and Emizet, Kisangani, ‘The Economics of Civil War: The Case of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’, in Collier, P. and Sambanis, N. (eds), Understanding Civil War, Volume 1: Africa (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005), p. 67Google Scholar .

27 An alternate presentation of this narrative might focus considerably more attention on the role of the UN and superpowers. Certainly that is true of standard summaries of this period as recorded in IR datasets (see below). A transnational focus emphasising the UN might contradict my claims of the usefulness of neo-realism in explaining the First Congo Crisis.

28 The quotes are from, respectively, Young, , Politics in the Congo, p. 336Google Scholar ; Nzongola-Ntalaja, , The Congo from Leopold to Kabila, p. 106Google Scholar ; and Kaplan, , Congo, p. 49Google Scholar .

29 Young, , Politics in the Congo, p. 336Google Scholar .

30 Ibid., pp. 329–31.

31 Ibid., p. 330.

32 Ibid., pp. 331–3.

33 Kaplan, , Zaire, p. 49Google Scholar .

34 Young, , Politics in the Congo, p. 542Google Scholar ; and Ndikumana and Emizet, ‘The Economies of Civil War’, p. 67.

35 Mearsheimer, , The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, chap. 5Google Scholar .

36 Discussion of this alliance is offered in Young, , Politics in the Congo, p. 332Google Scholar ; Kaplan, , Zaire, p. 49Google Scholar ; and Nzongola-Ntalaja, , The Congo from Leopold to Kabila, p. 121Google Scholar .

37 A clear neo-realist statement of the presence of a common enemy enhancing the prospects for cooperation is found in Grieco, Joseph, ‘Anarchy and the Limits of Cooperation’, International Organization, 42:3 (1988), pp. 485–507CrossRefGoogle Scholar , and particularly on p. 501.

38 Young, , Politics in the Congo, pp. 542–543Google Scholar .

39 For example, Thucydides, , History of the Peloponnesian War (New York: Modern Library Edition, 1951), p. 331Google ScholarPubMed .

40 These dates are from Young, , Politics in the Congo, p. 359Google Scholar ; and Ndikumana and Emizet, ‘The Economics of Civil War’, p. 68.

41 Young, , Politics in Congo, pp. 342–343Google Scholar ; and Ndikumana and Emizet, ‘The Economics of Civil War’, p. 67.

42 Mulele's training is chronicled in Kaplan, , Zaire, p. 52Google Scholar ; and the quote is from Callaghy, , The State-Society Struggle, p. 156Google Scholar .

43 The quotes may be found, respectively, at Ndikumana and Emizet, ‘Economics of Civil War’, p. 70; and Young and Turner, , The Rise and Decline of the Zairian State, p. 57Google Scholar .

44 Nzongola-Ntalaja, , The Congo from Leopold to Kabila, p. 132Google Scholar .

45 Grieco, ‘Anarchy and the Limits of Cooperation’.

46 Callaghy, , The State-Society Struggle, pp. 158–160Google Scholar .

47 Ndikumana and Emizet, ‘Economics of Civil War’, p. 69.

48 Mercenaries and American airlift assistance is from Callaghy, , State-Society Struggle, p. 160Google Scholar ; Kwilu holdouts are described in Nzongola-Ntalaja, , Congo from Leopold to Kabila, p. 129Google Scholar .

49 Nzongola-Ntalaja, , Congo from Leopold to Kabila, pp. 132–134Google Scholar .

50 Young, and Turner, , Rise and Decline of the Zairian State, p. 250Google Scholar .

51 Ndikumana and Emizet, ‘Economics of Civil War’, p. 64.

52 COW coding criteria for war were originally presented in Singer, J. David and Small, Melvin, The Wages of War 1816–1965: A Statistical Handbook (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1972)Google Scholar , chap. 2.

53 For COW's MID coding criteria see Ghosn, Faten, Palmer, Glenn, and Bremer, Stuart, ‘The MID3 Data Set, 1993–2001: Procedures, Coding Rules, and Description’, Conflict Management and Peace Science, 21:2 (2004) pp. 133–154CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

54 Young, , Politics in the Congo, p. 352Google Scholar .

55 Neither COW nor ATOP alliance datasets mention any of these alliances. For the COW alliance data see Gibler, Douglas and Reid Sarkees, Meredith, ‘Measuring Alliances: The Correlates of War Formal Interstate Alliance Dataset’, Journal of Peace Research, 42:2 (2004), pp. 211–222Google Scholar . For ATOP see Ashley Leeds, Brett et al. , ‘Alliance Treaty Obligations and Provisions’, International Interactions, 28:3 (2002), pp. 237–260Google Scholar .

56 See Reid Sarkees, Meredith with Shafer, Phil, ‘The Correlates of War Data on War: An Update to 1997’, Conflict Management and Peace Science, 18:1(2000), pp. 123–144CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

57 See Petter Gleditsch, Nils et al. , ‘Armed Conflict 1946–2001’, Journal of Peace Research, 39:5 (2002), pp. 615–637CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

58 For ICB see Brecher, Michael and Wilkenfeld, Jonathan, A Study of Crisis (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

59 Returning to the variability of Africanist critiques, many scholars specialising in African IR would readily agree that a focus on a wider range of actors would greatly clarify empirical findings about African IR. My claims here, in one form or another, are consistent with past work such as Ayoob, Mohammed, The Third World Security Predicament (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1995)Google Scholar ; the various contributors to Clapham, Christopher (ed.), African Guerrillas (Oxford: James Currey, 1998)Google Scholar ; and Reno, William, Warlord States in Tropical Africa (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998)Google Scholar .

60 Brown, ‘Africa and International Relations’, p. 121; similar comments are found on p. 127 as well.

61 Callaghy, , The State-Society Struggle, p. xiiGoogle Scholar .

62 See Tilly, Charles, (ed.), The Formation of National States in Western Europe (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975)Google Scholar ; and Tilly, Charles, Coercion, Capital, and European States (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1992)Google Scholar . An enormous literature building on Tilly's war-and-state-making perspective includes: Porter, Bruce, War and the Rise of the State (New York: The Free Press, 1994)Google Scholar ; Spruyt, Hendrik, The Sovereign State and Its Competitors (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994)Google Scholar ; Thomson, Janice, Mercenaries, Pirates and Sovereigns (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994)Google Scholar ; Anderson, Malcolm, Frontiers: Territory and State Formation in the Modern World (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996)Google Scholar ; Lee Burke, Victor, The Clash of Civilizations: War-Making and State Formation in Europe (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997)Google Scholar ; and Bates, Robert, Prosperity and Violence (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2001)Google Scholar .

63 Sorenson, Georg, ‘War and State Making: Why Doesn't It Work in the Third World?’, Security Dialogue, 32:3 (2001), pp. 341–354CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

64 Ayoob, The Third World Security Predicament; Herbst, States and Power in Africa.

65 Young, Crawford, The African Colonial State in Comparative Perspective (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994)Google Scholar .

66 Englebert, State Legitimacy and Development in Africa.

67 Malaquis, Assis, ‘Reformulating International Relations Theory’, in K. Dunn, and T. Shaw, (eds), Africa's Challenge to International Relations Theory (New York: Palgrave, 2001), p. 11Google Scholar ; Swatuk, Larry, ‘The Brothers Grim: Modernity and International Relations in Southern Africa’, in Dunn, and Shaw, (eds), p. 172Google Scholar ; Warner, Carolyn, ‘The Rise of the State System in Africa’, Review of International Studies, 27:4 (2001), pp. 65–89Google Scholar ; Reno, Warlord States in Tropical Africa.

68 Angel Centeno, Miguel, Blood and Debt: War and the Nation-State in Latin America (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002)Google Scholar .

69 Thies, Cameron, ‘War, Rivalry, and State Building in Latin America’, American Journal of Political Science, 49:3 (2005), pp. 451–465Google Scholar ; and Thies, Cameron, ‘The Political Economy of State Building in Sub-Saharan Africa’, Journal of Politics, 69:3 (2007), pp. 716–731Google Scholar .

70 Thies, Cameron, ‘National Design and State Building in Sub-Saharan Africa’, World Politics, 61:4 (2009), pp. 623–669CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; and Herbst, States and Power in Africa.

71 Kirby, Andrew and Ward, Michael, ‘Modernity and the Process of State Formation’, International Interactions, 17:1 (1991), pp. 113–126CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

72 Young, and Turner, , The Rise and Decline of the Zairian State, pp. 63–71Google Scholar .

73 Nzongola-Ntalaja, , The Congo from Leopold to Kabila, pp. 132–134Google Scholar .

74 A dozen or so recent candidate APEs have been documented and had their state making efforts discussed by: Clapham, ‘Degrees of Statehood’; Clapham, African Guerrillas; and Jackson, Paul, ‘Warlords as Alternative Forms of Governance’, Small Wars and Insurgencies, 14:2 (2003), pp. 131–150CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

75 Brown, ‘Africa and International Relations’, pp. 129–30.

76 Douglas Lemke, ‘Balancing Against Extinction: Alliance Politics Among Non-State Actors’, in G. Palmer, (ed.), The Causes of International Conflict (London: Routledge, 2008)Google Scholar ; Lemke, Douglas, ‘Power Politics and Wars Without States’, American Journal of Political Science, 52:4 (2008), pp. 774–786Google Scholar ; and Lemke, Douglas, ‘The Births and Deaths of De Facto States’, unpublished manuscript (Pennsylvania State University, 2010)Google Scholar .