Introduction: Africa and International Relations Theory

Abstract

In his examination of the Rwandan genocide, Philip Gourevitch notes a ‘stubborn misconception’ dominating Western attitudes toward Africa — ‘that Africans generate humanitarian catastrophes but don’t really make meaningful politics’ (1998: 326). Gourevitch illustrates how the international community ignored a genocide that destabilized the entire Central African region and left over a million individuals dead. Assuming that ‘Africans were just being Africans,’ the Western media and policy makers tended to ignore the 1994 genocide and its (continuing) after-shocks.