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

Chapter One

1. Introduction:

We are living in difficult times with huge changes in the world system, changes with sufficient magnitude to suggest the emergence of new global structures, processes and patterns with numerous uncertainties in the globalize world such as the emergence of IPE as a new field of enquiry focusing the interests and policies of states, determined by the governing political elite, the pressures of powerful groups within a national society, and the nature of the political system of political economy. According to (Glipin 2001:18), the elite definition of national interests is subjective but objective factors of geographic location and physical requirement of the economy are of great importance in determining national interests such as national security is and always will be the principal concern of states in an international system, as Waltz in Gilpin put it ‘’state must constantly guard against actual and potential threats to their political, economic, independence’’ (ibid 2001:19). Since the Second World War and throughout the Cold War period, IR was mostly viewed through the security lens; there was neglect of the role of economic integration and the role played by non state actors in IR (Keohane and Nye 2004). Security concerns here refer to military, economic and psychological power important in IR. It is important to recognize that successful development since 1945 has been made possible by the security system provided by the alliances between the US and its allies in Europe and Asia. According to Wendt, international politics is socially constructed rather than constituting an objective reality, defining constructivism, he identify two basic tenets¹; human structures identified mainly by shared ideas rather than material forces, and the identities and interests of human beings are constructed or are the product of these shared ideas rather than being product of nature.

The importance of Africa Gulf of Guinea to the world system after 9/11 attacks, could be traced looking at the changes of the security doctrine of the US and its allies after the 9/11 attacks. With its roots traceable with the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, where the enemy was known, challenges clear and responses readily calculated such as the sweet moments when the wall came down in Berlin, apartheid ended in South Africa and Nelson Mandela was released from prison and an aggression was set back in Kuwait had marked the end of the Cold War old world order and the beginning of a new post Cold War world order² , that led to the era of globalization and heightened global interdependence with profound political impact in the world economic system(Rosenau 1999), of multiple contradictions, ambiguity and uncertainties, where the international system is less dominant but it is still powerful, states are changing but they are not disappearing, state sovereignty has eroded but they still throw their weight around, borders still keeps out intruders but they are also more porous. The political space is continuously shifting, widening and narrowing simultaneously, minor incidents mushroom into major outcomes and that the complexities of modern life are so deeply rooted as to infuse ordinariness into the surprising development and the anxieties attached to it. Where the order that sustain families, communities, countries, and the world rest on contradictions, ambiguity and uncertainties

Uncertainty intensify while the end of the Cold War has been accompanied by pervasive instability, super power rivalry complexity, technological dynamics stimulants, breakdown of trust, the shrinking of distance, globalization of economics, the explosive proliferation of organizations, information revolution, regional integration, the surge of democratic practices, the spread of fundamentalism men of God and men who kill in God’s name, the revival of historic animosities provoking reactions that heightens complexity and uncertainty has become an enduring way of life .

The high degrees of complexity and dynamism on the global stage is now occupied by numerous independent and volatile actors, moving world politics into highly turbulent state in three primary areas; the distribution of power in world politics to which states, international organization and other key actors responds to each other(macro parameter); Authority relationships through which governments, multinational corporations, ethnic groups, and other large entities are linked to individual citizens; (macro-micro parameter); And the analytical and emotional skills citizens possess(micro parameter). These changes in world politics can be traced to the way changes in each parameter stimulate the other two (ibid:21-6) with extensive and enduring consequences, producing salient dynamics both internal and external that drives the turbulence that 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.

The linkage of the bourgeoisie of the periphery to the bourgeoisie of the centre to further exploit the masses, the issue of brain drain with the phenomenon of national lottery visas, the rise of the Asian tigers, the expansion of the EU, the current financial crisis and even more crisis now, the shift of the locus of policy issues of containment with the fall of the USSR to resource accumulation and keeping the military involve in state diplomacy, the flux of migration, the wave of democracy flow, the clash of civilizations, a political salience of rising oil prices and the free floating of the dollar, not withstanding the upsurge of terrorist activities and the launching of 9/11 and 7/7 attacks and counter attacks and more, marked the height of turbulence in world politics, has led to the regain of importance of Africa to the world system. But the background to this could be traced with the new scramble for Africa.