What Has This Got to Do with the Liberation of Black People?: The Impact of Ronald W. Walters on African American Thought and Leadership

12. Ronald Walters: Theory and Practice of Foreign Policy Justice

287 12 Ronald Walters Theory and Practice of Foreign Policy Justice KARIN L. STANFORD Introduction It was during the height of the antiapartheid movement when I first learned that Ronald W. Walters, a scholar at Howard University , was a leader in advancing theoretical conceptualizations of African Americans in international affairs. At that time, I was a student at the University of Southern California and troubled by the outrageous racism practiced by the South African government. I was equally infuriated by the South African government’s comfortable and profitable relationship with U.S. corporations and government. It was then that I joined the picket lines of the Free South Africa Movement (FSAM), an organization that drew attention to apartheid by protesting against artists and businesses who entertained and conducted business with South Africa. I was already familiar with the names of Congressman Walter Fauntroy (DC-D), TransAfrica president Randall Robinson, law professor Eleanor Holmes Norton , and Civil Rights Commission chair Mary Francis Berry. Their arrest in 1984 highlighted the atrocities of the South African government and elevated African American concerns about the repression and exploitation of that country’s black citizens.1 Although courageous , their bold actions were not surprising considering that they were already famed as politicians or political activists. However, it was rather unusual for me to witness scholars also function as activists in international affairs. Yet, Ronald W. Walters connected both 288 Karin L. Stanford platforms—as activist and scholar—to promote a theory and practice of foreign policy justice that was designed to liberate African descendants and other dominated people from domination. My interest in international affairs preceded my introduction to the man who would become my academic advisor, dissertation chair, and mentor. Before becoming a doctoral student at Howard University, I had already received instruction on the most accepted academic debates on U.S. foreign policy toward Africa. The focus of the information and research was on the actions, successes, and failures of elite state actors, such as the secretary of state, ambassadors, and cabinet officials. The scholars studied were essentially framed as objective observers, theoreticians, and commentators on foreign policy ideas, tasks, and accomplishments. Activism by nonstate actors was usually separated from foreign policy theory, and the work of scholars was unconnected to activists. This approach to scholarship guided my studies, until I was introduced to Ronald Walters’ practice of serving as scholar, theoretician, policy analyst, strategist, and activist for the global movement against colonialism. It was during the antiapartheid movement, which elevated attention on African American international activism and the work of individuals such as Ronald Walters, that I understood that one could be an activist and a respected scholar of international affairs. Acting within that capacity as scholar-activist, one could actually have an impact upon the international arena without being a foreign service officer or having matriculated at an Ivy League institution. I attended Howard University in hopes of receiving instruction from Ronald Walters and to benefit from his tutelage. The preeminence of Dr. Walters’ scholarship on domestic politics makes it quite easy for some to overlook the fact that his Doctorate of Philosophy was in International Affairs. This misconception is negligible, since Walters, as most African Americans, constructs “the same paradigm of justice seeking in foreign affairs as in the domestic arena.”2 Accordingly, Walters did not support the argument that in order to legitimate scholarship, one had to reject an active role in the African liberation movement. As stated by Ronald Daniels, president of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century, “in the tradition of W.E.B. Du Bois, Dr. Walters was an authentic intellectual, an action-oriented theorist who never wavered in his conviction that the lessons learned in the academy must be translated/applied in terms Ronald Walters 289 of activism in the community.”3 Walters was consistent in connecting domestic and international affairs in his efforts to explain the predicament of African-descended people. In this chapter, I will examine Ronald Walters’ contribution to our understanding of African Americans in the global context. I offer an assessment of how his scholarship and work on African Americans and African descendants in the global context inform his readers and the body politic. This chapter considers the work of Walters over his entire academic career. In particular, it traces the development and evolution of his international perspective, his early engagement with African and international studies, and...