This book discusses the prospects for the development of the African continent as part of the emerging system of international relations in the twenty-first century. African countries are playing an increasingly important part in the current system of international relations. Nevertheless, even 60 years after gaining their independence, most of them are confronted with regional and global issues that are directly related to their colonial past and its influence. Due to Africas wealth of natural and geopolitical resources, the possibility of interference in the internal affairs of African countries on the part of new and traditional global actors remains very real.

Leading Africanists, together with international scholars from both international relations and African studies, examine the experience of decolonization, the impact of the emergence of a unipolar world on the African continent, and the growing influence of new international actors on the African continent in the twenty-first century. In addition, the importance of African countries foreign policy concepts and ideological attitudes in the post-bipolar period is revealed.  

This volume strengthens the intellectual bridge between Russian, African and Western scholars of international relations. Strongly recommended!

Vladimir G. Shubin, Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences 

This book presents a wide range of prominent global scholars who bring a wealth of knowledge on the subject of Africa and the world.   

Gilbert Khadiagala, Jan Smuts Professor of International Relations and Director of the African Centre for the Study of the USA (ACSUS) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. 

As a genuine contribution to the field of international relations and Global South Agency, this book should be in every institution of higher educations library. 

Lembe Tiky, Director of Academic Development, International Studies Association.

Alexey Vasiliev is Honorary President of RAS Institute for African Studies (Russia). Between 2006 and 2011 he was the special representative of the President of Russia for contacts with leaders of African states. Over the five decades of academic work, he has published 40 books and more than 900 articles.

Denis Degterev is Head of the Department of Theory and History of International Relations at RUDN University, Moscow (Russia), he also teaches at MGIMO-University, MFA of Russia. He published over 200 papers in leading journals. He specializes in development cooperation, Africa and has written extensively on Global South. In 2002-2005 he worked in West Africa.

Timothy M. Shaw is Faculty Fellow at the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance, McCormack Graduate School UMass Boston (USA). Some of his areas of expertise are international political economy, human development and human security, and African and Caribbean regions. He has written and edited more than ten books.

Part One: Legacy of Decolonization.- Sixty Years Later: Africas Stalled Decolonization.- Post-Colonial Period in the History of Africa: Development Challenges.- Rethinking the Role of Araujo Castro in Brazilian Position on the Decolonization of Africa.- USSR and the Nkrumahs Project of the Union of African States, 1963-1965. (Based on Russian Archival Materials).- Part Two: Emerging Powers and Africa in the context of Multipolar World Formation.- Designs of the Four: Comparing African Strategies of Russia, China, US and EU against the Backdrop of the (re-)Emerging Bipolarity.- RussiaAfrica: New Cooperation Prospects in a Changing World.- Africas Shadow Rise and the Mirage of Economic Development.- Security and Development in China-Africa Contemporary Cooperation.- Costs and Benefits of Chinas Role in Southern Africa.- Africa in the Hierarchy of China's Core National Interests.- Part Three: African Solutions to African Problems: the Role of Africans in Peacekeeping.- The African Union and Peacekeeping in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities.- African Peacekeeping and African Integration: Current Challenges.- IGADs Mediation and Peacekeeping in Africa: Challenges and Perspective.- Womens Participation in the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations: Overcoming Barriers.- Farmer-Herders Conflict as a Challenge to National Unity in Nigeria.- Part Four: Mental Decolonization through Non-Western International Relations Theories.- Analytic Afrocentricity and the Future of African Studies.- African Foreign Policy Thought and Classical Political Doctrines: the Commonality of Ethical and Axiological Grounds.- In Quest of African IR Theories: Panafricanism and National Ideologies, Critical Theories or Post-colonial Studies?.- An African Worldview on International Relations: Theory and State Policy.- Part Five: Decolonization in the 21st Century andFuture Perspectives.- Problem of African Agency in International Relations from the European Union Viewpoint.- Information Dependence as the Neocolonialism of the 21st Century: Past, Present, Future.