Research Articles (Political Studies)

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Browsing by Subject "Africa"

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    Africa–India nuclear cooperation: pragmatism, principle, post-colonialism and the Pelindaba Treaty
    (Routledge, 2011) Pretorius, Joelien
    The United States India nuclear agreement, announced in 2005, was a first step in the process to normalise India’s international nuclear relations despite the fact that India is not a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Africa is largely seen as a uranium supplier rather than nuclear power producer in the world nuclear order. The position that African states take towards Africa India nuclear cooperation, uranium supply to India in particular, is informed by two seemingly contrasting factors, namely economic and political pragmatism on the one hand, and non-proliferation imperatives and norms on the other. The African Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty, also referred to as the Pelindaba Treaty, prohibits uranium and nuclear-related exports to states without comprehensive safeguards of their nuclear facilities, but the case of India is still open for interpretation. Africa and India’s shared post-colonial consciousness, manifesting in their historical ties, membership of the Non-Aligned Movement and South South cooperation, is often regarded as another factor facilitating Africa India nuclear relations. A more critical view points to the different notions of post-coloniality in Africa and India, resulting in different approaches to nuclear non-proliferation that constrain their nuclear relations.
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    Complexity, depoliticisation, and African nuclear ordering agency: a meso-level exploration
    (Routledge, 2024) Pretorius, Joelien; Vaughan, Tom
    The regional nuclear ordering terrain in Africa is increasingly complex, with proliferating and deepening institutional relationships to the institutions of the global nuclear order. Applying a ‘complexity lens’ to this regional institutional apparatus may therefore seem like an intuitive way to understand its role in global nuclear ordering at large, and Africa’s place within it. However, one important concern when thinking about complex multinational regimes is depoliticisation. This has been examined in contexts of global development as well as nuclear order and we show this as a key feature of meso nuclear ordering in Africa. A complexity lens is useful to analyse the characteristics of the African regional institutional terrain. However, a complexity lens can perpetuate this depoliticisation if it does not acknowledge the political thrusts which underlie conceptions of ‘order’ and ‘disorder’.
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    Postmodernism and the reclaiming of tradition
    (Berghahn Books, 1998) Piper, Laurence
    ‘The history of the Zulu people is the history of myself’.1 In Africa, as elsewhere, the notion of tradition is bound up with the discourses of ethnicity and nationalism. Typically invoking pre-colonial identities as the basis of peoplehood, such narratives of common descent are imbued with a strong sense of ‘pastness’, orientating the modern self in traditional terms. Anderson explains this invocation of tradition as a feature of the inverted nature of ethnic narratives of common descent.2 More common are accounts which focus on the ‘loss of meaning’ brought about by modernisation and the psychic security offered by an idealised past.
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    Postmodernism and the reclaiming of tradition
    (Berghahn books, 1998) Piper, Laurence
    The history of the Zulu people is the history of myself'.1 In Africa, as elsewhere, the notion of tradition is bound up with the discourses of ethnicity and nationalism. Typically invoking pre-colonial identi- ties as the basis of peoplehood, such narratives of common descent are imbued with a strong sense of 'pastness', orientating the modern self in traditional terms. Anderson explains this invocation of tradition as a feature of the inverted nature of ethnic narratives of common descent.2 More common are accounts which focus on the ioss of meaning' brought about by modernisation and the psychic security offered by an idealised past. Recent theories look to supplant this sense of tradition as reaction with a sense of tradition as creation. One example is Lonsdale's argument that the affirmation of ethnicity in post-colonial Africa, with its associated invention of tradition, must be seen in the context of internal debates over civic virtue as pre-colo- nial moral economies are re-structured by the state and capitalism.
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    Who watches Korean TV dramas in Africa? A preliminary study in Ghana
    (Sage, 2018) Kim, Suweon
    More and more Ghanaians are watching Korean TV dramas. These are not just ordinary Ghanaians because they are from a particular socioeconomic bracket; they have a certain level of education, access to screen devices and Internet, accumulated previous experience of watching other foreign screen products and, most importantly, a peer network with those who can afford these items. Drawing from qualitative work and focus-group interviews, the article argues that Korean TV dramas are spread efficiently by taking advantage of those contributing components within the privileged network, but they remain within the network due to the lack of those necessary components outside the bracket. The recipients find Korean media products attractive because they are fresh, funny, socially decent, different, yet close to them vis-à-vis Hollywood and Nollywood.