Recentering Africa in International Relations Beyond Lack, Periphera

This innovative book responds to an existing demand for taking Africa out of a place of exception and marginality, and placing it at the center of international relations and world politics. Bringing together a number of scholars from various disciplinary

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Marta Iñiguez de Heredia and Zubairu Wai

Recentering Africa in International Relations Beyond Lack, Peripherality, and Failure Foreword by Robbie Shilliam

Recentering Africa in International Relations

Marta Iñiguez de Heredia Zubairu Wai Editors

Recentering Africa in International Relations Beyond Lack, Peripherality, and Failure

Foreword by Robbie Shilliam

Editors Marta Iñiguez de Heredia Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals Pompeu Fabra University Barcelona, Spain

Zubairu Wai Department of Political Science Lakehead University Thunder Bay, ON, Canada

ISBN 978-3-319-67509-1    ISBN 978-3-319-67510-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67510-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017961559 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: © Tetra Images / Getty Images Cover design by Jenny Vong Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Foreword

There is little to add to Zubairu Wai’s comprehensive introduction to this wonderful collection of essays. Wai amply sketches out the double task of deconstruction and reconstruction which the volume attends to. As Wai argues, this task is made all the more difficult because Africa is a parallax— exemplifying at the same time the very best and very worst of the human condition. Indeed, to think of Africa with nuance, with complexity, with opacity, with humanity, would be to dis-orient the basic episteme of International Relations (IR) scholarship. Considering the daunting nature of this challenge, I would like to preface the chapters that follow with four stories. Two are from contemporary Ghana. One from historic