"... much closer home, the East African countries of Ethiopia and
Uganda, are not darlings of the West for their democracy, if they have
any, but for aligning their security interests to those of the US and
the rest of the West for mutually reinforcing permanent interests ..."
http://www.modernghana.com/news/634331/1/of-states-and-human-behaviour-and-the-sleep.html
Feature Article | 5 August 2015 12:03 CET
Of States And Human Behaviour And The Sleeping African Beauty
By Samwin John Banienuba
Today, globalisation defines world economics and has been pronounced
since the twilight years of the last century. The state sponsors and
vested sympathisers would want us believe it is about greater
competition, increased investments, free trade and free movement of
labour. Being the case, as is argued, it creates or should create and
increase opportunities and wealth for all. What is not equally
trumpeted is that globalisation is shy of a convenient scheme for
pursuit of the permanent interests of a club of rich nations keen on
enhancing their superiority of power in similar ways as
well-positioned individuals in society exploiting their status for
personal gain and security of family.
Globalisation is Western economics, and Western goods, services and
labour do truly and freely move trans-borders and filter through into
other parts of the world, but not necessarily the other way round.
Otherwise, is it not ironic that despite its touted benefits Africa
remains one continent that still has to lobby for preferential trade
agreements such as the African Growth and Opportunity Act to allow
duty-free imports of LIMITED products from ELIGIBLE, not all, African
countries into the US? Or the Cotonou Agreement with the European
Union that sets up a framework for trade between the EU and African,
Caribbean and Pacific countries?
Truth is, gone are the days when it was possible for teeny David to
floor giant Goliath with stone and sling. Greater competition, for
instance, augurs well for the more established and state of the art
Western conglomerates, not fledgling African businesses at the mercy
of institutional, infrastructural and technological challenges.
African farmers who drive most economies in the continent, with hardly
any subsidies or mechanisation of methods, seem set up to fail in the
global competition where their Western counterparts are state
subsidised, backed up by superior technology.
As her goods, services and labour remain literally embargoed in the
West, as if they are sub-global and sub-interesting, the globalisation
that applies to Africa and sub-Saharan Africa in particular is a
fantasy at best or a phantom at worst. Who will blame the West? Most
students of International Relations would hesitate to disagree with
the realist maxim that “nations have no permanent friends or allies,
they only have permanent interests.” Usually credited to a certain
Lord Palmerstone - an English statesman, the German born US Secretary
of State - Henry Kissinger, took serious note and placed it right at
the centre of US international relations in the 1970s. He was neither
pretentious nor ambiguous when he declared the obvious that “America
has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.”
Controversial as it may seem, it sums up realism and still arguably
underpins and informs current foreign policy relations of the United
States, most Western countries and many non-Western others with the
palpable exception of the sleeping African beauty. Rightly or wrongly,
the concept of individual human survival and self-interest as often
manifested by crooked leaders is precisely what states extrapolate
into pursuits of national or permanent interests whether those
interests are the supremacy of their security or the primacy of the
welfare of their own people. Long before Palmerstone and Kissinger,
states replicated such human behaviour in dealings with other states
even at the expense of weaker and more vulnerable nations such as has
been visited on African countries over the centuries and still
counting.
Often perceived as one country by the outsider, and having suffered
victim of trite divide and rule policies of same outsider, push
factors suffice for Africa to deepen unity of foreign policy relations
and internal trade, especially now that the economics of exploitation
has never been so much more nuanced and sophisticated in the name of
globalisation. Quite unfortunately, the foreign policy objectives of
the continent are anything but coherent and tariff barriers still
handicap intra African trade.
Not even the ceaseless foreign stampede for Africa’s precious mineral
and agro resources and the extant Chino/Western scramble for spheres
of influence in the continent have helped inform or define permanent
African interests. Neither has the increasing economic and political
marginalisation nor the somewhat over reliance on foreign aid or
multilateral financial institutions helped coalesce African foreign
policy.
Sadly, the response of the continent has instead been largely moral
epistles and intellectual lamentations of all sorts without the
pragmatism to recalibrate course, stand up united and say never again
with steely resolve. Of course, it is not unreasonable to bawl over
the Trans Saharan and Atlantic slave trades, colonialism and the
continued rape of the continent in the guise of globalisation.
The slave trades alone qualify for the odious, the heinous, the
atrocious, the obnoxious and what have you. They remain an
unparalleled monstrosity of human inhumanity, and no amount of the
perfumes of Arabia can sweeten this murderous entreprise. To pile
colonialism and the likes of apartheid and colour bar on top of it was
nothing else but the clearest manifestation of vested greed at work in
pursuit of some nations’ permanent interests by all the means
necessary.
Angry as the intellectuals may have been, and still are, political
leadership have largely remained asleep since the exceptional days of
Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba and Steve Biko. Very few have woken up
to that aha realisation of permanent interests and the imperatives of
gate keeping the resources of the continent for present and future
generations. Of course, there is no universality of human behaviour
and it is arguable that not every state necessarily replicates the
realism of “no permanent friends or enemies, only interests” in its
brazen facet. Some nations indeed prefer the subdued liberal
cooperation with every other nation with shared values and interests
albeit with the same objectives of maximising security and providing
welfare for their citizens. Europe, as is represented by the European
Union today, is archetypical.
Other nations, especially the not too powerful or small ones in fear
of their very existence and survival, often elect the strategy of
exchanging some of their sovereign rights for protection by more
powerful nations in what pundits describe as bandwagoning. In human
behaviour it is a bit like how young diminutive students surrender
some of their pocket money to giant bullies for protection in schools.
The classical scenario in inter state relations is the
Israeli-American so-called friendship but the relationship between the
US and the oil rich nations of the Gulf and many others in Asia is
also quintessential. Much closer home, the East African countries of
Ethiopia and Uganda, are not darlings of the West for their democracy,
if they have any, but for aligning their security interests to those
of the US and the rest of the West for mutually reinforcing permanent
interests.
The pity however is that Africa, as a collective, is not learning from
any of the above. If she is, she is doing so too slowly, rather poorly
or vulnerably separately in a competitive global world. In principle,
the African Union is tantamount to the European Union and represents a
liberal framework for cooperation. With 54 member states under its
belt and with a population of well over the billion mark one would
expect the continental platform to command serious visibility at home
and abroad. The reality however suggests it is more a forum for elite
felicities than a muscle of defence in matters of the permanent
interests of the continent. The reasons may be debatable but with
hardly any rigorous criteria or test for membership, other than being
a sovereign state in the continent, it is not too difficult to imagine
commitment has been lip service for far too long.
By default, Africa is already a vulnerable target of predatory
capitalism by being home to 57% of the world’s cobalt, 50% of the
platinum group of metals, 46% of its diamonds, 21% of its gold and 13%
of its oil. But what actually imperils the continent is this
incredible lethargy from which it seems incapable of rising up to the
defence of its own patch as would happen in human behaviour or in the
worlds of Lord Palmerstone and Henry Kissinger. It is tough out there
and the competition for resources to oil the wheels of permanent
interests has witnessed a phenomenal surge in cross-boundary
capitalism conveniently facilitated by unbridled globalisation. If
globalisation did not exist some other form or system of economics
will be devised to serve exactly the same narrow objectives of the
powers that be.
For Africa to avoid being pushed about and continuously milked by
everyone else except by herself she needs to appreciate that other
nations will always seek to extend their influence because it serves
their permanent interests to do so. Running home to self pity or
playing the blame game has never changed the game. Africa must bite
the bullet without further feet dragging, and to do so require a
serious blueprint that seriously commits leadership to a serious
delivery of the very serious and mutually reinforcing twin interests
of security and welfare.
Beyond the highlights of promising economic growth rates
characteristic of many countries in the continent lately, but which
almost always mean nothing to ordinary citizens struggling to get by,
Africa is capable of reaping its own real dividends of globalisation.
It can do so effectively through the clout of a common foreign policy
and pursuits of internal free trade and free movement of labour
amongst other home grown strategies for holistic development of
continent and people. The African Union holds the promise for that to
happen but until it wakes up to make things really happen soon, the
continental union will remain what it is, a promise!
The Writer is Freelance International Relations Analyst and Political
Commentator
Received on Wed Aug 05 2015 - 09:13:33 EDT