Foreign and Security Policy of Zimbabwe: From Independence to the DRC

Abstract

To write about factors determining the foreign policies of African states is not easy. It is a task beset by a number of problems. One is the newness of most of them as sovereign independent states. It has not been possible for them to build up any tradition, or any firmly established pattern of interests behind their foreign policies (Aluko 1977, 1). Unlike their counterparts in Europe and in the United States, the governing elites, and indeed in many cases the presidents alone, in Africa have extensive control over the foreign relations of their countries. The reasons for this are not hard to see. Being new in the international system many African states still have to carve out for themselves established interests in the international arena. Consequently, there is nothing like a traditional pattern of external behaviour. Furthermore, there are no serious domestic institutional restraints on the behaviour of the African governing elites.