In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Foreign Intervention in Africa: From the Cold War to the War on Terror by Elizabeth Schmidt
  • Awet T. Weldemichael
Elizabeth Schmidt. Foreign Intervention in Africa: From the Cold War to the War on Terror. New Approaches to African History Series. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Xvii-260 pp. Abbreviations. Illustrations. References. Annotated bibliography. Index. US$25.19 (Paper), ISBN 978-0-521-70903-3. US$72.00 (Cloth), ISBN 978-0-521-88238-5. [End Page 169]

Contemporary African history lacks the wealth and diversity of teaching textbooks easily available in other fields. Elizabeth Schmidt makes a tremendous contribution toward closing that gap by presenting in this readable, lucid volume what would otherwise be difficult to find in multiple volumes.

Schmidt sets out to challenge notions of Africans as accepting of some of the ills that afflict their societies while being intolerant of their own diversity. Foreign Intervention in Africa does so by showing that foreign intervention in Africa is a culprit for many of the continent’s dire conditions. African actors are not shown as passive onlookers, however. Throughout the book, Schmidt shows Africans actively seeking alliances with more resourceful outside forces to fortify their internal positions or outdo their local rivals. But the focus of the book remains foreign intervention for its far more devastating impact on African states and societies.

The introductory chapter offers a condensed and compelling overview of the many forms that foreign interventions in Africa have taken: colonialism, internationalization of local anticolonial struggles, neocolonial arrangements that overlapped with superpower Cold War rivalries, economic/financial domination that only worsened with the end of the Cold War, and finally the still ongoing global War on Terror in the midst of rising notions of the “Responsibility to Protect” that gnaws at the Westphalian concept of sovereignty largely to the detriment of African independence.

Many actors were involved in the decolonization process, which although “centered on local issues … were played out in the context of the Cold War” (p. 8) with local actors tapping into global powers’ alacrity to support. Nevertheless, not only did the consequent spiraling militarization cause more harm than good, but foreign interests took precedence over the local concerns that made the realization of the former possible in the first place. Likewise, foreign interests remained paramount with little to no regard for local African interests throughout the other phases before decolonization and after.

The book then proceeds to offer a thumbnail sketch of the principal ideologies and actors that shaped the postcolonial landscape. Schmidt argues that all colonial powers granted independence only after the colonized demanded independence and exerted pressure to that end. But whereas the colonial powers traded political control of their colonies for economic domination of the newly independent countries (their former colonies), the weaker colonial masters clung on to political control as a way of securing their economic interests. In the latter case, as in the Portuguese colonies and settler colonies in Southern Africa, armed struggles ensued as a result. The weaker the colonial powers, the more dramatic later Cold War interventionism.

The United States and the Soviet Union dominated the Cold War in pu-suit of their conflicting strategic interests against the backdrop of post-WWII American prosperity and Soviet devastation. Nevertheless, whereas US policies on Africa fluctuated and often conflicted, depending on who had the upper [End Page 170] hand in American policy circles, the Soviet Union did not have to contend with as much internal rivalry. Its quest for African allies benefited from its condemnation of imperialism and lack of colonial possessions in Africa or adjacent territories. China shared Soviet distaste for capitalist imperialism, but Moscow and Beijing fell out with each other, throwing in China as a third Cold War actor in Africa with an attractive political-economic model and ideology for emergent African countries. In supporting African actors, these powers competed against and at times coalesced with each other. Although a close ally of the Soviet Union, Cuba supported African movements and governments in ways that remained largely independent of Moscow.

In the subsequent six chapters of the book, Schmidt offers case studies that illustrate the interaction of these external dynamics with local...

pdf

Share