Africa in the global trading system

Abstract

No state is an island in the complex, interdependent international system. There is a need to relate to other actors, both state and non-state, for any country to successfully navigate the complexity of global international relations. Many theories drive this point home, from the realist/neo-realist and Marxist/neo-Marxist to liberal/neo-liberal schools. Neo-liberalism’s complex, interdependent, international economic system sees a need to promote trading for economic development and political stability. A question worth asking is to what extent one can claim that Africa benefits, to the fullest, from the trading system as crafted by the Euro-American arrangement handed to the rest of the world. A global trading system calls for ultra-laissez-fairism, but the developed North fails to abide by the tenets of neo-liberalism through confusing imposed globalisation, regionalisation, and regionalism capped with unsustainable international trade norms. This chapter contextualises North-South, South-South and regionalism concepts. Critical theory will be the theoretical starting point.