African Lessons for International Relations Research

Unquestioned assumptions of universal patterns coupled with unwillingness to conceive of political entities existing at different levels of empirical statehood render international relations research poorly equipped to understand Africa's international relations. Consequently, Africa is effectively missing from prevailing international relations theorizing and data set construction. After discussing specific ways Africa is omitted from standard international relations research, the author reviews four recent volumes describing Africa's international relations for clues about how to close the gap between Africa's experiences and prevailing research practice.