African Agency in International Politics.

• Author: Moore, Candice
• Position: Book review

African Agency in International Politics

Edited by William Brown and Sophie Harman

London and New York: Routledge, 2013, 204 pages, ISBN 9780415633536.

The use of the concept of agency in relation to Africa's foreign relations has, up to now, been very limited. This has often related to the actions of individual pivotal states, such as South Africa or Libya. Indeed, there has not yet been an in depth examination of African agency in international relations, making this volume a welcome addition. Admittedly, this is an enormous subject, one that has grown in significance and relevance given the deepened involvement of actors such as China on the continent since the end of the last century. Questions started to be asked about how African states could structure their engagement with an actor so obviously superior in economic and political power. However, this is not the first time that African agency has been addressed, as these questions were previously inspired by the post-colonial experience and the analysis of enduring Great Power involvement in African affairs, during and after the Cold War.

This volume, edited by two scholars - Open University's William Brown and Queen Mary University's Sophie Harman - who have been theorising for some time about Africa's role in international affairs, is thus a long-overdue addition to studies on Africa's international relations. It contains contributions from a number of Africa scholars from the continent and beyond, including Siphamandla Zondi, Tom Cargill, Donna Lee and Scarlett Cornelissen, to name a few. A question mark does

arise, however, as to why only two scholars based in Africa, Zondi and Cornelissen, were included in the work leading up to the conceptualization and completion of the book, especially given its subject matter. The book comprises 11 chapters arranged into three parts: "Negotiating Internationally," "Agency: New Modes, New Sites," and "States and Agency." It is well-written and mostly well-edited, although some issues do arise. The volume seeks to ask "how far and in what ways, African political actors are impacting on, and operating within, the international system? What are the key sites and sources of agency in Africa? What does African agency look like and how can we understand it?" (p.1). It should be noted that the book does answer many of the questions that it set out to answer. It finds Africa's impact on the UN system (chapter by Zondi), the WTO (chapters by Lee and...