Ghana's Foreign Policy: Kwame Nkrumah's Normative Legacy and Pan-Africanism examines Ghana's foreign policy in the post-independence era, focusing on the enduring legacy of Kwame Nkrumah. This book also analyzes the complexity of post-independence foreign policy decision making and the influence of the post-colonial narrative during the Cold War. In this study, Charles Asante argues that the significance and continuity of Nkrumah's legacy is often attributed to his pan-Africanist leadership on the African continent, fervently articulating an independent African foreign policy. Leaders like Nkrumah, considered themselves as the redeemers of Africa's political and economic vulnerability from its colonial experiences. Asante finds that, in contrast to the positive experience associated with his independence movement for Ghana, Nkrumah could not build the same kind of vision, engagement, and networks among other African nationalist leaders necessary for successful promotion of a Pan-African region. Despite Nkrumah's own foreign policy failures in the Congo, the United States of Africa project, and his sudden overthrow in 1966, Nkrumah's Pan-African vision is still promoted as an important foreign policy objective by Ghana's politicians, public servants, military, and academics.
Charles Asante is lecturer at the Center for African and International Studies at the University of Cape Coast.
Acknowledgments List of Acronyms Introduction Chapter One: An Introduction to Norm Entrepreneurship Chapter Two: The Intellectual Roots of Pan-Africanism Chapter Three: The Emergence of Kwame Nkrumah as a Norm Entrepreneur Chapter Four: The Ghanaian State: Post-Independence Period, 1950s-1960s Chapter Five: Kwame Nkrumah's Pan-African Foreign Policy: The Congo Intervention Chapter Six: Kwame Nkrumah and the Creation of the Organization of African Unity: An Embodiment of Pan-Africanism Chapter Seven: Kwame Nkrumah's Demise and Foreign Policy Legacy Conclusion Appendix: Primary Research (Interviews) Bibliography About the Author
Ghana's Foreign Policy: Kwame Nkrumah's Normative Legacy and Pan-Africanism brings Africa and Ghana into the western-centric study of international relations theory in a new and compelling way. Based on extensive interviews and a deep reading of published work, Charles Asante argues that Kwame Nkrumah's struggle for independence set a norm and created an identity which the Ghanaian state cannot escape. By presenting Nkrumah as a norm-leader who also struggled to implement his vision, this book explains the enduring influence of the postcolonial leaders who came into power immediately after independence in Africa. Asante succeeds in highlighting the importance of deeply studying African agency in international relations, while also remaining critical of Ghana's leader. Asante's research is a prime example of how IR theory scholarship can benefit from the integration of postcolonial perspectives and should therefore be widely read. -- Frank Gertis, Utrecht University
