Looking back: themes, perspectives, periodisation

1. Looking back: themes, perspectives, periodisation HI277 | Africa and the Cold War Dr Natalia Telepneva Term 2, Week 10

2. Outline • Periodization • Key Questions: power, agency, change • What was the CW? • Where did the power lie? • How did the CW affect Africa and vice versa? • Exam Preparation Tips

3. A ‘conventional’ Cold War chronology? • 1945-50: division of Europe, formation of alliance blocs • 1950s-1960s: globalisation of the Cold War: Korea, Vietnam, Cuba… • Early 1960s-late 1970s: détente • Late 1970s-mid-1980s: ‘second Cold War’ • Mid-1980s-1991: reform and revolution in Eastern Europe • Today... a new Cold War…?

4. An ‘African’ Cold War chronology? • 1945-mid-1960s: nationalist agitation and decolonisation • Early 1960s: Congo Crisis – a turning point? • Late 1960s onwards: military coups and authoritarian rule • 1970s: the ‘second wave’ of liberation; economic crisis • 1980s: structural adjustment reforms • End of the Cold War: democratisation and civil war

5. From an American perspective… • 1950s: ambivalent stance towards decolonisation • Early 1960s: Kennedy and ‘engagement’ with Africa • Mid-1960s-mid-1970s: more conservative policy under Johnson, Nixon, and Ford • Late-1970s: Carter and the human rights ‘moment’ • 1980s: Reagan and tougher approach towards the Soviet Union • 1990s: the United States triumphant? or a ‘lonely superpower’

6. …and a Soviet perspective • 1945-53: little interest in Africa under Stalin • Late 1950s onwards: greater engagement under Khrushchev, but disappointment of the Soviet ‘development model’ • 1960s: policy dominated by Sino-Soviet rivalry • 1970s: revolutions in Angola, Mozambique, and Ethiopia. Peak of involvement • Mid-1980s onwards: withdrawal from Africa under Gorbachev

7. What was the CW in Africa? Ideology Geopolitics/Economic profit Pragmatic foreign policy, driven by geopolitics and economic profit (lots of literature that emphasize pragmatism on both sides) Geopolitics: the importance of the Congo, the Horn of Africa Economic profit: The Congo, Britain in Nigeria (Richard Reid) Can we separate ideology from pragmatism? (maybe: ideology shaped understanding of interest) • O. A. Westad: Global Cold War was a clash of two competing development models or visions of modernization • Was the failure of ‘Soviet development model’ crucial to our understanding of the Cold War and how it ended? • Did these development schemes represent a new form of imperialism How did Africans understand these superpower ideologies? We can often see African acting opportunistically, ‘playing the CW game’. BUT, we should also take ideological claims seriously. They didn’t simply consume ideology – they had creative solutions of their own

8. ‘Taking off the CW lens’ • ‘Taking off the Cold War lens’ (Matthew Connelly) • Cold War as a Eurocentric paradigm • Algeria: US policy was shaped by race and notions of North-South conflict • So the idea of ‘taking off the Cold War lens’ is both an analytical tool and a means of understanding the mindsets through which contemporary actors operated. • Do you agree with the framework? What about other cases (e.g. USA in the Congo and Zanzibar?)

9. Where did the power lie? SUPERPOWERS • Early scholarship • Superpower interventions AFRICAN AGENCY • New scholarships—emphasizes role of African agency • NB! ‘African agency’ is not a thing or a goal -- African leaders don’t act ‘to assert African agency’ as many students (and some historians) argue. • Rather, ‘African agency’ is an analytical way in – way of pushing back against Cold War histories written from the perspective of the United States or Soviet Union or other European states. • But where are the limits of agency? Do Africans sell out some of their independence or autonomy in order to gain resources from the superpowers

10. ‘African agency’ as analytical tool Africans as active agents in the Cold War: ‘‘pericentric framework for the Cold War” (Tony Smith, “New Bottles for New Wine”)—>role of so-called ‘peripheral actors’ in the international system to in sustaining superpower conflict • Other ‘smaller actors’: Cuba, Eastern European countries, Britain, France, Belgium, Portugal, China and South Africa Africans’ creative responses to decolonisation and the Cold War (transnational frameworks) • OAU and Pan-Africanism • Bandung and Asia-Africa Connections • Non-Aligned Movement • African Socialism: beyond the CW, not a binary choice between Soviet-style socialism and capitalism

11. How did the CW affect Africa and vice versa? 1. The timing and outcomes of decolonisation Starting point: Varied histories (violent vs. peaceful paths) CW Africa: It is debatable how much affected the process; sometimes helped and sometimes hindered (nature of post-colonial settlements excluded ‘radical’ Africa CW: decolonisation was a clear trigger for the superpowers to start to compete in Africa, gave ‘new life to the CW’? 2. The nature of state in post-colonial Africa Starting point: Post-colonial inheritance: weak post-colonial economies and institutions, arbitrary borders (Cooper’s concept of ‘gatekeeper states’ CW Africa: Cold War strengthened single and military rule and entrenched the nation state system. External legitimacy became key Africa Cold War: helping allies hindered détente and ‘peaceful competition’? (e.g. Congo, 1960, Angola and Ethiopia hindering détente in the 1970s?) How did modernisation programs impact ideas about development ‘back at home’? 3. Africa and the End of the Cold War  CW Africa: The end of the CW encouraged democratisation, but also stimulated conflict Africa  CW: Conflicts in southern Africa delayed superpower détente, but also encouraged it (through ‘imperial overstretch’)?

12. Exam Preparation Tips Return to readings from week 1 (key theoretical essays) Exam: You need to answer 2 questions out of 10 (not every single week will correspond to an exam question) Key blocs: decolonization and African nationalism, ‘alternatives’, Case studies; development, modernization and militarization, the Horn of Africa, Southern Africa revise at least 3 ‘blocs’ Study groups Write timed ‘answers to questions’ look at past exams papers

13. Q &A