Research
You will find a complete range of our monographs, muti-authored and edited works including peer-reviewed, original scholarly research across the social sciences and aligned disciplines. We publish long and short form research and you can browse the complete Bristol University Press and Policy Press archive.
Policy Press also publishes policy reviews and polemic work which aim to challenge policy and practice in certain fields. These books have a practitioner in mind and are practical, accessible in style, as well as being academically sound and referenced.
Books: Research
Africa’s response to health challenges entered a new phase with the establishment of the African Union (AU) in 2002, with health added to its founding document. Despite this, the health of Africans has not significantly improved due to a plethora of national and international reasons. The poor state of the continent’s health was further diminished with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which added to Africa’s existing health and developmental challenges. The purpose of this chapter is fourfold. First, it sets out to explore the concept of health diplomacy. Second, it describes the state of health in Africa and the AU’s health architecture. Third, it analyses Africa’s health diplomacy. And finally, it outlines Africa’s health diplomacy in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy is one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Currently, almost 94 per cent of energy in Africa is generated from fossil fuels, perpetuating climate change risks. Africa has the fastest growing population and economy and thus requires just energy transitions that would tackle poverty, industrialization and decarbonization simultaneously. Nuclear energy is one of the decarbonized options that the African Union is actively working on with the International Atomic Energy Agency for sustainable development in Africa. But to what extent do geopolitical influences shape different African countries’ energy choices? China, France, Russia, South Korea and the US are offering their nuclear technologies to African countries. However, the Russian state-owned enterprise Rosatom has the largest number of contracts signed and is seen as a leader in promoting nuclear energy on the continent. This chapter investigates the geopolitical influences that shape the development of nuclear aspirations on the continent from the other end, focusing on the agency of South Africa, Egypt, Ghana and Zambia in their bilateral relations with Russia.
African diplomacy, as a unique diplomatic practice and area of study, stands at the centre of this volume. The editors and contributors set out with several caveats. First, this volume does not aim to make contributions to diplomatic theory despite an intellectual gap that remains in this area. Theory building is a unique intellectual undertaking that requires scientific rigour and time. However, the publication has laid some of the empirical and analytical groundwork for future scholarship in this area, presenting several diplomatic typologies to determine unique and shared elements of African diplomacy. This chapter returns to the conceptual and analytical framework of the volume. It commences with an outline of the functions of African diplomacy based on contributors’ findings. Thereafter it proceeds with a focus on the practice of African diplomacy deduced from the volume. It provides recommendations for the future agenda of African diplomacy before proceeding to the volume’s concluding remarks
This chapter provides personal reflections of three women – Jennifer Chiriga, Hesphina Rukato and Rudo Chitiga – who served in diplomatic fields. It focuses on specific issues of interest in women’s participation in diplomacy, both global and continental. The chapter reflects on personal experiences in the context of lived participation in leadership and diplomacy globally and in Africa. It draws on relevant normative frameworks, especially of the UN at the global level, and of the African Union at the continental level, and it also references theoretical frameworks in gender and leadership studies. It ends by highlighting emerging lessons and recommendations.
Since the establishment in 1963 of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the predecessor of the African Union (AU), the continent has been steadfast in promoting African unity and solidarity while also attempting to prevent Africa’s marginalization from the international arena. The continent has refined its diplomatic efforts and practices in the context of the Constitutive Act. One such practice has been the increased adoption of common African positions (CAPs) on areas of common African concern as well as on broader international matters. The aim of this chapter is to analyse CAPs as an African diplomatic instrument. It presents a conceptual analysis of common positions as a diplomatic instrument, and focuses on the elements, nature and objectives of CAPs. It outlines the diplomatic path leading to the crafting and adoption of a CAP before exploring the notion of commonality in the context of CAPs. African states’ universal application, promotion and implementation of CAPs is discussed.
While the understanding of science diplomacy continues to evolve, its application in statecraft needs further analysis. The political nature of science diplomacy means that it is more than activities of scientific cooperation, where cooperation itself can create ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ in the race to address global challenges leading to further structural divisions. In the main, the literature uncritically claims science diplomacy as a panacea for building mutually positive relations between parties; yet, given the global international structure, this is often a one-sided affair dominated by those with a developed capacity in science diplomacy. This exploratory study begins by addressing the concept of science diplomacy, its political purpose and its place as a tool in the diplomatic toolbox. The chapter then considers the role of science diplomacy in the African context and in facilitating communication, negotiation and representation. This aims to move discussions away from addressing the meaning of the concept of science diplomacy, to considering questions of capacity, application and its impact in practice.
The essence of diplomacy can be regarded as the process to establish and maintain goodwill between states while simultaneously advancing national interests and resolving issues of international concern in a peaceful way. Cultural diplomacy can be defined as a state’s goal to ensure that its cultural assets and accomplishments are recognized abroad and embedded in its foreign policy to advance the interests of the state as well as communicate aspects of its culture. This chapter focuses on Ghana’s utilization of cultural diplomacy as an instrument of its foreign policy, and to promote tourism and to attract FDI. The chapter highlights the cultural identity and architecture of the people, the government and the diaspora of Ghana to position the Ghanaian state as a pacesetter in cultural engagements by reconnecting them to their roots and culture, and to contribute to the development of Africa, particularly Ghana, through FDI. Furthermore, the chapter examines the challenges that hinder Ghana from fully benefitting from the cultural engagements alongside what the country stands to achieve in strengthening its cultural diplomatic relations with other states.
This book attempts to help readers understand how African states practise diplomacy. It does not aim to make contributions to diplomatic theory, despite a clear and ever-present intellectual gap that remains in this area. It is a first attempt in this process. The chapter is dedicated to introducing the reader to African diplomacy as a sub-discipline of diplomatic studies and international relations. It briefly unpacks how the perceptions about Africa as an international actor have changed over time before explaining how the change in perception is inspired by African diplomacy. It argues that African diplomatic practice is unique as it amplifies the need to expand our routine understanding of why diplomacy is practised. The chapter concludes by offering a brief overview of the chapters that follow.
Africa’s unique position as an international diplomatic actor has not always been given the attention it deserves. This volume bridges this gap by offering a fresh, comprehensive and realistic overview of African diplomacy.
The book examines African diplomatic practice. Chapters explore how different types of diplomacy have developed over time, including energy diplomacy, economic diplomacy and quiet diplomacy. Crucially, the book assesses how certain events have allowed Africa to use certain types of diplomacy to yield better outcomes for itself.
Including contributions from an international team of scholars, policy makers and experts from the diplomatic world, the book provides a comprehensive guide to African diplomacy and challenges the current dominant usage of Northern perspectives on diplomacy studies.
Diplomacy is an enduring state practice, and maritime diplomacy developed alongside the different domains of diplomatic practice that have taken shape over time. Contemporary diplomacy has many facets to cover the ever-expanding matters states wish to address in pursuit of their national interests. Maritime diplomacy is a unique type of diplomacy directed at pursuit of maritime state interests and operates in parallel with and as an adjunct to the general practice of diplomacy. This chapter demarcates and describes maritime diplomacy and then turns to African maritime agenda and interests in the early 21st century. It covers three broad topics to define maritime diplomacy and to highlight Africa’s maritime debate and the continent’s maritime diplomacy. It delimits diplomacy as a practice before outlining the exercise of defence, naval and maritime diplomacy. The chapter covers Africa’s maritime debate, threats and vulnerabilities before offering illustrative examples of maritime diplomacy from African actors, and instances of external maritime diplomacy directed towards the continent.
