This special double ISSUE is brought to readers via generous grants from the Ford Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation, and the support of Haverford College. The African authors in this double ISSUE were recruited in summer 1992 with the help of many friends of the African Studies Association in USA and Africa. All of them (with the exception of N’Diaye) participated in two panels sponsored by ISSUE at the annual meeting of ASA in Seattle in November 1992. Those not resident at the time in the USA spent almost two weeks traveling and speaking to various groups around the USA in the period surrounding the ASA meetings. This period in November and December 1992 also provided an opportunity to exchange ideas within the group and prepare the final drafts. Consequently, the articles reflect views and events no later than the end of 1992. A year in the making, this ISSUE is an attempt to bring to bear an African perspective on the emerging new African political order of the 1990s. In the past few years we have become familiar—at least on the surface—with the vast political changes sweeping across the Continent. ISSUE’s effort tries to project African voices into the center of the commentary and debate on democratization and new patterns of international relations in Africa.