Research
French a Western Intervention in Mali: A Pandoraas Box?
This paper probes French-Western manipulative policies and activities in Mali within the framework of critical theory of international relations, while at the same time, examining globalisation as “colonialism†by other means. It then goes on to assess the role played by France in both the cause and containment of the Malian crisis and the implications of the intervention on the national security and overall development of Mali. The paper, therefore, argues that French interest in Mali, is overwhelmingly high and has great consequences on the leadership struggle and governmental policies of the country. Factors that favoured the rise of the conflict are MNLA’s long-term goal of establishing a Tuareg State in self-determination coupled with Mali’s extreme economic and political dependence on outside assistance. Findings have revealed that France, is part of a wider design and struggle, within the Western World and particularly, within the foreign policy controlling group in Washington. Finally, the activities of France in the management of the conflict are widely observed as devoid of altruism.
Globalization and Africa: Issues and Prospects of the New International Economic Order (NIEO)
This paper investigates the problems militating against the realization of the NIEO. The paper then examines the globalization of the world economy and the economic transition in Central and Eastern Europe, being the two most important economic processes at work in recent years. The negotiations for the NIEO, therefore, cover two broad spectrums of concern to Africa namely, international monetary matters and trade. The paper argues that the multiple transitions involved in globalization, liberalization and democratization, have been implicated in the increase in violence, economic marginalization and criminal behaviour in Africa. The main results of this investigation underscore the fact that only industrialization in Africa will effect a change and have a more (resource) distributive relationship between the West and the continent. Cooperation with one another in economic affairs is indispensable for the realization of economic self-reliance in Africa. The mutually beneficial political and economic relationships between elites in the West and African countries would maintain the structural pattern of dependency in the global economy.
