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

Abstract

We are living in very difficult times and with the system of things, nothing seems to obey to the static law. Everything seems to be in constant motion. The world is fast becoming a global village and an understanding of a given phenomenon within a local setting no longer seems to respond to the local realities but rather connects to external complexities. An understanding of our social world becomes complex without a critique of the geopolitics and geo-strategy underpinning the political and economic dynamics of the internal and external, the states and the markets, the north and south, the poor and the rich, the local and the global as well as the East from the West, connecting the economy, politics and society. All through the post World War II and a better part of the Cold War period, IR was dominated and viewed through the security lens. International economic relations and cooperation was second best. In the 1980s, with the end of the Cold War and the fall of the second world the USSR, the de-linking of the dollar from the Gold standard and the collapse of the Breton Wood system putting IR in difficulty, the political salience of the rising oil prices, the coming into being of the globalization era marked by heightened global interdependence, the integration and expansion of EU, the rise of the Asian tigers, the debate and contestations of the world order between the established power, the emerging powers and the world orders of some terrorist networks and religious fundamentalists extremist men of God and those who kill in Gods name, the rise of non state actors such as international organizations and MNCs / TNCs and the would be retreat of the state, the collapse of the Berlin wall and the release of Nelson Mandela from prison followed by the outbreak of the war in the Gulf of Persia, marked the end of the old world order and the beginning of the new world order, characterised the international scene with turbulence that marked a shift in focus of the global political economy from IR to IPE, from states to global markets, that is from Keynesianism to neo liberal market economy, with a search for collective security and global governance for bringing about better social outcome. But with the outburst of the 9/11/2001 attacks that took place in New York, nothing has ever remained the same, with the US security politics declaring a global war on terror, attacking terrorist strong holds in the Persian Gulf and manning security the world over, with direct impact on the interests of the US relations with the rest of the world and the Gulf of Guinea region in particular. This saw a shift in the US security and foreign policy on terrorism and counter terrorism and even more wars after 9/11, making the Gulf of Guinea a priority in the US national security policy. The study put to question the realist and neorealist theories of the mainstream approaches and debate of the state, making use of new critical theories, coupled with the birth of new paradigms such as the current financial and global crisis and even more crisis, climate change and global warming, production, trade, ecology, migration, new social movement, environmentalism, feminism gender, and human rights activities world wide, rapid improvement in technology, not withstanding the upsurge of energy consumption, with their complexities and connections in our contemporary world, has speed the up the race for rivalry amongst major powers and the scramble for Africa. It is in this light that the importance of the security of Africa Gulf of Guinea after 9/11 attacks emerged, that has projected this region to the world system. With geopolitical and geo strategic rivalry of balance of power between the major powers but also between and within countries of the sub region over market and trade conflicts, political and economic manipulation, cultural and material values , states and non states actors, north south divide, ideology and decisions and other dramatic developments such as the emergence of security challenges, environmental and ecological degradation, resource depletion and scarcity, instability and mass human migration within and without the countries of the region. This has not gone unnoticed without an impact on the politics and economic in the countries of the sub region. This has opened the territorial space of the Gulf of Guinea as a theatre for hegemonic rivalry between the present world order the emerging states and the world orders and their multinationals. This has had profound implications on the lives of peoples and countries of the Gulf of Guinea. The region is fast transforming into a terrorist hot spot as evidenced by oil bunkering, piracy at sea, mafia business, trans-national criminal organisations and internal insecurity, social movements, civil strife leading to instability and fears, turbulence in the international system like the current financial crisis and climatic hazards that is no mercy for the region, a displacement of the war in the Gulf of Persia to the Gulf of Guinea is inevitable that is the countries risk becoming terrorist targets, the countries weak governing apparatus risk being further weakened, the resources of the region that would have been used to improve on better social outcomes, has become a curse. There is the risk of developing an Afro-centric bias of anti-Americanism, anti-Europeanism and anti-Asiatic feeling in the Gulf in particular and Africa in general. These issues make it interesting for investigation.

This paper support the hypothesis that, it is due to turbulence in the world system that has led to a shift from Keynesianism to neo-liberal global market economic integration and heightened global interdependence of the production, finance and knowledge structures interacting with the security structure that has led to the regain of importance of Africa Gulf of Guinea to the world system.

This makes it interesting to investigate the research question ;

Why the regain of importance of Africa Gulf of Guinea after 9/11 attacks to the world system, what impact may this have on the security realities in the countries of the sub region?

The paper concludes by identifying research findings and putting forth suitable recommendations.