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489 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 9 (1987)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0489 and id is 1 raw text is: PREFACE The varied foreign policies of African states have received scant scholarly attention. In this respect, most observers have focused on the continent as a whole, viewing it as little more than a chessboard where East-West rivalries are played out. The collection of articles by eleven recognized experts that constitutes this volume of The Annals makes a significant contribution toward broadening our knowledge and understanding of international affairs in Africa. African states are primarily concerned with the preservation of their sovereignty, independence, and prestige against perceived internal, regional, and global challenges. Frequently all three potential threats are salient factors when wars occur. For example, the wars in Ethiopia, Chad, Angola, Mozambique, the Sudan, Uganda, Namibia, and South Africa are all characterized by vigorous internal opposition groups, interference from neighboring countries, and intervention by great powers. Ideology has been grossly exaggerated in past explanations of the international relations of African states. For example, in the Horn of Africa not only did the United States and the Soviet Union switch sides a decade ago, but regional alliances have persisted despite ideological changes in regimes, such as in the Sudan. Somalia's territorial claims and threats to neighboring countries have forged an enduring alliance between the two ideologically disparate regimes of Ethiopia and Kenya. I. William Zartman, in Foreign Relations of North Africa, examines relations between the North African states of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, concluding that each state's foreign policy is characterized, above all, by a preoccupation with the other states in the region. Torn between dual pressures to work together as a community and to distinguish themselves from each other, they are caught up with the need to develop a sense of rank among themselves. Clement Henry Moore explores much of the same territory, but through a different optic, in The Northeastern Triangle: Libya, Egypt, and the Sudan. He sees a tenuous balance between Cairo and Khartoum being threatened by Libya. Moreover, counterproductive American policies have actually strengthened Qaddafi's regime at home and, coupled with a deteriorating Egyptian economy, could precipitate a Nasserite, anti-American coup in Egypt, thereby altering regional alignments dramatically. In Nigeria Restrained: Foreign Policy under Changing Political and Petroleum Regimes, Timothy M. Shaw discusses a cyclical pattern in Nigeria's external relations, pursuant to the changes in its political constitution and petroleum production. Nigeria's aspiration to great-power status in the 1970s has yielded to austerity and modesty in the 1980s. Yet core concerns about internal development, regional and continental integration, and liberation in southern Africa continue despite the series of changes in governmental structure and oil profitability. If Nigeria can become more self-reliant and self-sustaining economically, its foreign policy will, accordingly, become far more influential. 9

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