Neo-Colonial Africa in a Post-Soviet World
Neo-Colonial Africa in a Post-Soviet World
A continent of rapid change and slow modernization, Africa is a place of several failed and rogue states that are key to the international foreign policy of many world powers during periods of both the past and present. The United States of America (USA), the emerging superpower of last half of the 20th century, would clash and eventually prevail against the communist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) through proxy wars and competition of foreign aid in controlling the politics, economics, and overall decision making of independent African nations that had previously been under control of Western European powers. The fall of the USSR in 1989-1991 caused by economic decline, political corruption and inaction, and social westernization at home as a result of the Westernized policy of Glasnost (openness) and the failed economic policy of Perestroika (rebuilding) [1], would open a massive power gap in former neo-colonial states previously under Soviet influence.
Africa, known for its centuries of struggle and exploitation under European control, would become engulfed in a fierce struggle for autonomy and independence during the last half of the 20th century, and constantly throughout the Cold war. Little did these various third-world nation’s know, a new type of colonialism would arise following the end of the Cold war and the end of the great communist power known as the USSR. Nations such as China would pick up the pieces of communist ideology in African regimes [2], while some schools of thought in Britain would press for a new age of colonialism in Africa. France would try to reassert its presence in the continent, with organizations such as Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (International Organization of the Francophonie [3] to unite and influence French speaking Africans (31 African nations use French as its first language) especially in Western Africa where it had been dominant
A continent of rapid change and slow modernization, Africa is a place of several failed and rogue states that are key to the international foreign policy of many world powers during periods of both the past and present. The United States of America (USA), the emerging superpower of last half of the 20th century, would clash and eventually prevail against the communist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) through proxy wars and competition of foreign aid in controlling the politics, economics, and overall decision making of independent African nations that had previously been under control of Western European powers. The fall of the USSR in 1989-1991 caused by economic decline, political corruption and inaction, and social westernization at home as a result of the Westernized policy of Glasnost (openness) and the failed economic policy of Perestroika (rebuilding) [1], would open a massive power gap in former neo-colonial states previously under Soviet influence.
Africa, known for its centuries of struggle and exploitation under European control, would become engulfed in a fierce struggle for autonomy and independence during the last half of the 20th century, and constantly throughout the Cold war. Little did these various third-world nation’s know, a new type of colonialism would arise following the end of the Cold war and the end of the great communist power known as the USSR. Nations such as China would pick up the pieces of communist ideology in African regimes [2], while some schools of thought in Britain would press for a new age of colonialism in Africa. France would try to reassert its presence in the continent, with organizations such as Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (International Organization of the Francophonie [3] to unite and influence French speaking Africans (31 African nations use French as its first language) especially in Western Africa where it had been dominant
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