The Importance of Africa to The World System After 9/11 Attacks: War on Terrorism or Integration for Sustainable Development

Chapter Three

3. The Theory Framework:

Chapter three talks of the context, content and critique of the realist and neo realist theory in use in this study, looking at the reconnection of Africa Gulf of Guinea through the security lens, in it application evaluation and assessment of realists traditions of states struggles for power, prestige, and influence in the high political arena of diplomacy and warfare but also the realists IPE conception of security, production, finance, knowledge, ideas, and commercial pre eminence issues of contemporary concern in world economic affairs into problems of international economic diplomacy and trade wars described by (R. B. J. Walker 1993 in Ravenhill 2008:33) of structural, historical, political and economic realism following the pioneering of Maugenthau and Carr of state interests and behaviour in international economic negotiations and norms as inscribed and defended by the actions of international institutions of global governance in contemporary times such as the WB, IMF, WTO, UN and so on,

But what do we mean by realism and neo realism? My attempt is not to deconstruct but to identify point of disagreement between Realism, neo Realism and their adversaries of Liberalism and Marxism which include variants ideologies as Economic Nationalism, Hegemonic Stability theory, Mercantilism, Imperialism, Regimes theory, Dependency theory, Complex Interdependence, neo Classical Economy, Constructivism, among others, as they engage in IPE parallel play.

This research contends that they are exclusive approaches to IPE with different assumptions and conclusions with regard to the nature and consequences of security in a world system of IPE. Like a public pot of stew where everyone comes and pour its own ingredients, like the father the son and the holy ghost, like the appetizers the main course and the dessert, like three toy trains travelling from three different starting point and ending at different predetermined destinations never crossing each other path according to Mammo’s perception of Strange conception of the mainstream approaches which Nye likened as a brush lump of billiard balls heating against one another.

Realists argue the state motivated by self interests are the only important actors, sees the world as it is, affected by social, economic and political circumstances, sees the state as the key actor pursuing national interests in the global economy; On their part the liberalists sees the state as the most important actors using regimes to further their interests, they see the world as it is suppose to be, they want to think how the world economy could be most efficiently organized ; while the Marxist sees an uneven development and construction of global capitalism leading to imperialism, they see the primacy of the state and national security but belief the state as a servant to the dominant social class, they say the world is divided into the centre semi periphery and the periphery.

Whether or not economic interdependence leads to political conflicts or harmony, remains a continuous debate among realists, liberalists and Marxists. Despite their variability they all contend the primacy of the state and national security and the necessity to avoid conflict to the interest of economic development. (Gilpin 2001; strange 1994,p. 16)