UK African policy in the post-cold war era: from realpolitik to moralpolitik?

The end of the Cold War led Western states to review their policies towards Africa. Against this background, the British government under John Major stressed the need for 'new thinking' while the Blair administration promised to give 'a new priority' to Africa. This article examines how far Britain has in practice adapted its African policy to the challenges of the New World Order. It evaluates and explains the changes which have taken place, focusing on the 'multilateralisation' of UK-African relations and on Britain's new-found willingness to intervene in African affairs. Finally, it looks at 'ideological' differences between the Major government, which based its policy on realpolitik, and the Blair administration, which has adopted a 'third way' stance on African policy. While these differences should not be overstated, they have marked an identifiable change in Britain's response to Africa's challenges.

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The end of East-West rivalry transformed the global political landscape and encouraged Western governments to rethink their foreign policies towards black Africa. In this changing 'Great Power' environment, the British Conservative government under John Major (1990-97) was quick to reject the 'conventional wisdom' of the Cold War years and to recognise the need to 'improve and adapt' its 'response mechanisms' to Africa's crises. (1) The Labour administration under Tony Blair, in power since 1997, has also emphasised the need for 'new thinking' on Africa and promised to give the African continent 'a new priority on the international agenda'. (2)

Not surprisingly, these claims by Britain's post-Cold War governments have led commentators to look for changes in British African policy. (3) Most scholars have, however, limited their analysis to particular aspects of UK-African relations such as economic or military assistance. (4) Others have focused exclusively on Britain's actions in specific African states, notably its recent military intervention in Sierra Leone and diplomatic efforts to resolve the deepening crisis in Zimbabwe. (5) This article will provide an overview of British African policy and will aim to assess how far this policy has in fact adapted to the challenges of the New World Order. It will begin by outlining the main phases of British-African relations and will identify any major changes which have taken place in the last decade or so. It will then explain these changes and account for any broad continuity in policy. Finally, it will look at 'ideological' differences between the Major and Blair governments and examine how far these differences have marked Britain's post-Cold War response to Africa's challenges.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

There have been three broad phases in UK African policy: the colonial era, the post-colonial period (1957-89) and the post-Cold War phase (from 1990 onwards).

The colonial era is generally traced back to Britain's conquest of large swathes of Africa in the nineteenth century. Although this continent was never as important as Asia, it did include commercially useful territories like South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. Africa did, moreover, form part of an empire which, even in the post-Second World War era, remained one of Britain's three foreign policy priorities or 'interlocking circles'--the other two being the United States and Europe. (6)