Journal of Contemporary African Studies A New French Policy for Africa (original) (raw)
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Кривушин FRANCE AND SUB SAHARAN AFRICA IN THE POST COLONIAL ERA
The article examines the history of relations between France and its former colonies in Western and Central Africa after independence, and the Françafrique as a neo-colonial phenomenon and a specific Gaullist instrument of great power politics. The author studies the main trends in France's African policy, its objectives, postures and bottlenecks, and he tries to answer why these lost its efficacy in the post-Cold War era. The article shows how France's political and economic role in Africa gradually diminished in the 1990s -2000s, and proposes a possible scenario for the future development of relationships between France and African countries for the near and medium term.
Academia Letters, 2022
France’s traditional policy in Africa, born after the independence of cataclysms, does not know how to make exception to the fundamental notion of the life cycle. It was born, grew up, and continues to age as it heads towards its probable end of cycle — end of its history — as a result of its gradual and continuous decline. This paper therefore briefly outlines the gradual decline of France’s traditional policy in Africa from the 1990s to this new era of globalization. The years of the Cold War between the United States and the USSR are well seen as those of the birth, growth and golden age of the said policy. Rather, the post-Cold War years between the US and the USSR are seen more as the years of its awakening, decline and probable end of history. From the years of its birth — the era of facade independence — to this new era of globalization, the said policy is seen moving from libertinage and coercive prescriber gendarme to "peacekeeper" and reserves; from collusion to the pronounced appearance of arm-wrestling and criticism; from tacit legitimacy to pronounced fed up; switches to the progressive breakdown of privileges, monopolies and abusive dominations; and from the open sky to hypocrisy, taboo and sacrilege. Finally, the question that arises here is: are we heading towards the end of history of the said policy?
The Long Overdue Exit Of France From Africa
The world's media is commenting on the attempted coup in Niger and the reaction of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to this military seizure of power from a democratically-elected government. There is a plethora of explanations, rationalisations and prevarications about the roles of the principals in dealing with this crisis, but little concentration on what is the fundamental root of this, and many previous, destabilisations in African political history. The five-ton elephant in the room is France and it colonial and neo-colonial policies. There are many theories being advanced about the situation and its possible outcomes but very little discussion about what almost every African man, woman and child knows-the burden of French colonial practices on their nations and the learned dependence which has inhibited African growth and prosperity. There is no solution to the problem of Francophone Africa which doesn't require the removal of French policies from the governance of these African states.
‘La Françafrique’: The Special Relationship Between France and Its Former Colonies in Africa
İNSAMER Analysis, 2019
‘La Françafrique’ changed aspects according to the economic and geopolitical context over time. Even if relations between France and Africa are weaker today than they were in the colonial times, ‘La Françafrique’ is not completely over as François Hollande affirmed. Indeed, insofar as the CFA Franc exists, cooperation and defense agreements are not suppressed and France interferes in African affairs according to its needs, we cannot speak of an eventual end of ‘La Françafrique’. Africa and its resources are still a topical issue in French politics.
Academia Letters, 2022
This paper proposes to briefly explain why the gradual decline and probable end of historyof France’s traditional policy in Africa in this new era of globalization. The gradual declineof France’s traditional policy in Africa is simply understood as the progressive decadence,in the path towards the end of history of France’s evolving neo-colonial policy—of meta-morphic French neo-colonialism, on the African continent and in its sub-Saharan bosom inparticular, passing from libertinage and coercive prescriber gendarme to “peacekeeper” andreserves; from collusion to the pronounced appearance of arm-wrestling and criticism; fromtacit legitimacy to pronounced fed up; switches to the progressive breakdown of privileges, monopolies and abusive dominations; and from the open sky to hypocrisy, taboo and sacri-lege. By using Central African Republic and Mali as specific cases of concrete illustrations, the results that emerge from this paper show that the rise of soft engagement and the decline of hard engagement, the pronounced exposureof win-lose results of the said policy, the rise of new anti-neocolonial public opinion and the retreat of French power on the African continentand in its sub-Saharan bosom in particular are the main root causes of the gradual decline of France’s traditional policy in Africa and towards its probable end of history in this new eraof globalization. To conclude, this paper has noted the need for further in-depth studies in thesense of identifying and seeing the results and implications of the decline of the said policy in this new era of globalization.
FRANCE CO OPERATION WITH AFRICA
ABSTRACT France as a former colonial power in Africa has had long years of relationship with Africa. To describe that relationship a-priory as cooperation is another matter. Since African countries assumed political independence in the wave of 1950’s and 1960’s, there has been another phase in the relationship between France and Africa. That phase of post-independence has been described by many scholars as an era of “special relations “between France and her defined Africa. France cooperation with Africa in the last decade 1999 till the present has presented us with new perspectives. How France has carried on with her cooperation with enlarged Africa constitutes our pre-occupation in this study. That many factors have intervened in how France conducts her relations with Africa during this decade is an understatement. The study has captured some of these factors in France’s relations with some selected African countries of Nigeria, Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Tanzania and South Africa.
France and the New Imperialism: Security Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa
The role of French security policy and cooperation in Africa has long been recognized as a critically important factor in African politics and international relations. The newest form of security cooperation, a trend which merges security and development and which is actively promoted by other major Western powers, adds to our understanding of this broader trend in African relations with the industrialized North. This book investigates whether French involvement in Africa is really in the interest of Africans, or whether French intervention continues to deny African political freedom and to sustain their current social, economic and political conditions. It illustrates how policies portrayed as promoting stability and development can in fact be factors of instability and reproductive mechanisms of systems of dependency, domination and subordination. Providing complex ideas in a clear and pointed manner, France and the New Imperialism is a sophisticated understanding of critical security studies. Contents: French security policy in sub-Saharan Africa; The symbolic state, security, and symbolic France; Colonizing the political in Africa: underwriting French hegemony and proscribing dissent; Authorizing hegemony: French power and military cooperation, 1960–1994; Into the 21st century: liberal war, global governance, and French military cooperation; Making (in)security: the use of force to master violence; Complicity in genocide: France in Rwanda; Hegemonic struggles, hegemonic restructuring: France in Côte d' Ivoire; Conclusion: France and the new imperialism Reviews: 'A valuable and provocative book, combining insightful deployment of critical theoretical ideas on security and the symbolic state with historically and empirically rich analyses of French engagements with Africa. The author successfully demonstrates both the dynamism and the powerful continuities that mark Franco-African relations, to the detriment of most Africans within the ambit of this deeply rooted “special relationship”.' David Black, Dalhousie University, Canada '…this book raises a number of fascinating questions and opens a necessary and long delayed debate about France's security policy in Africa…' Journal of Contemporary European Studies '…the book succeeds in showing where the Franco-African complex has come from and how it has endured, rendering it open to further scrutiny. It also forms a useful guide to how such issues might be investigated in other contexts.' African Affairs
Introduction to Special Issue: France in Africa/ Africa(ns) in France
Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 26:2
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