Complexity, depoliticisation, and African nuclear ordering agency: a meso-level exploration

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Date

2024

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Routledge

Abstract

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’.

Description

Keywords

Africa, Regional nuclear ordering terrain, Global development, Depoliticisation, Nuclear ordering agency

Citation

Pretorius, J. and Vaughan, T., 2024. Complexity, depoliticisation, and African nuclear ordering agency: a meso-level exploration. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, pp.1-21.