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Africa in the Global Political Economy: Globalization, Regionalization, or Marginalization?

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The New Regionalism and the Future of Security and Development

Part of the book series: The New Regionalism ((NERE))

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Abstract

Although, unlike many other Southern continents, Africa contains no NICs (South East Asia) (Stein, 1995) or even near-NICs (also South East Asia along with Latin America and, possibly early in the next century, China and India), neither does it confront the overwhelming constraints of people and/or values in much of either the Middle East or South Asia. Its political economies belong largely to Fourth (Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia) and Fifth (Liberia, Somalia, Sudan, Zaire) Worlds rather than Third (Botswana, Mauritius, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and, at least historically, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Senegal?) (Nyang’oro and Shaw, 1992; Shaw, 1993; Swatuk and Shaw, 1994), thus transcending any lingering colonial or regional let alone contemporary ‘political’ or ideological typologies. I elaborate on Africa’s unenviable place in the avant-garde of global trends in the first part below, distinguishing feasible scenarios in the second, and turning to possible continental and international policy responses in the third.

An earlier version of this chapter appeared as ‘Africa in the global Political Economy at the end of the Millennium: What Implications for Politics and Policies?’ Africa Today, Today, vol. 42, no. 4 (Fourth Quarter 1995). pp. 7–30.

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  1. Timothy M. Shaw
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Peace and Development Research, Göteborg University, Sweden

    Björn Hettne (Professor) (Professor)

  2. Institute for World Economics, Budapest, Hungary

    András Inotai (Director- General) (Director- General)

  3. Center for Public Policy Analysis, University of Chile, Chile

    Osvaldo Sunkel (Professor of Economics and Business Administration, Director) (Professor of Economics and Business Administration, Director)

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© 2000 The United Nations University/World Institute for Development Economics Research, Katajanokanlaituri 6B, 00160 Helsinki, Finland

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Shaw, T.M. (2000). Africa in the Global Political Economy: Globalization, Regionalization, or Marginalization?. In: Hettne, B., Inotai, A., Sunkel, O. (eds) The New Regionalism and the Future of Security and Development. The New Regionalism. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-11498-3_5

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