Africa and Liberia in World Politics
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
© COPYRIGHT by Chandra Dunn 2016 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED AFRICA AND LIBERIA IN WORLD POLITICS BY Chandra Dunn ABSTRACT This dissertation analyzes Liberia’s puzzling shift from a reflexive allegiance to the United States (US) to a more autonomous, anti-colonial, and Africanist foreign policy during the early years of the Tolbert administration (1971-1975) with a focus on the role played by public rhetoric in shaping conceptions of the world which engendered the new policy. For the overarching purpose of understanding the Tolbert-era foreign-policy actions, this study traces the use of the discursive resources Africa and Liberia in three foreign policy debates: 1) the Hinterland Policy (1900-05), 2) the creation of the Organization for African Unity (OAU) (1957- 1963), and finally, 3) the Tolbert administration’s autonomous, anti-colonial foreign policy (1971-1975). The specifications of Liberia and Africa in the earlier debates are available for use in subsequent debates and ultimately play a role in the adoption of the more autonomous and anti-colonial foreign policy. Special attention is given to the legitimation process, that is, the regular and repeated way in which justifications are given for pursuing policy actions, in public discourse in the United States, Europe, Africa, and Liberia. The analysis highlights how political opponents’ justificatory arguments and rhetorical deployments drew on publicly available powerful discursive resources and in doing so attempted to define Liberia often in relation to Africa to allow for certain courses of action while prohibiting others. Political actors claimed Liberia’s membership to the purported supranational cultural community of Africa. After the widespread use of the rhetoric of the independence struggles of the 1950s and 1960s, including “Africa for the Africans”, a discourse that had previously been marginalized ii within Liberia’s public space now began to be used to yoke Liberia to the new African states. The national discourse of an African continental identity became part of the Liberian rhetorical landscape in the 1970s; newspapers and other publications frequently exposed Liberian audiences to the African nationalist discourse of the anti-colonial independence movements taking place at their borders and across the continent. However, the discourse of traditional Liberian conservatism also competed for prominence in shaping policy. Liberia as an African state, that is being, belonging to and fundamentally connected to the land and peoples of Africa, that can be traced to the beginnings of the polity in debates and discussion in the US during the 19th century. Liberian state leaders justified their policy choices in the early 1970s by asserting Liberia’s African identity. This move also simultaneously served to recast Liberia as an African state, which in turn had implications for Liberia’s allegiances, alliances, alignment, and actions in international politics. Thus, Liberia was nested within Africa; this new identity produced certain foreign policy actions and produced Liberia in its new manifestation as an African state. The study argued that the shift in Liberian foreign policy can be adequately explained by the Liberia’s claim to be an African state, specifically part of a supranational community called “Africa” with associated commitments and responsibilities any member of a community would presumably have. Without the specifications of “Liberia” and “Africa” that became salient in the 1970s but originating from those earlier debates, Liberia might not have implemented the more autonomous, anti-colonial, and Africanist foreign policy that it adopted. Since these terms, with their contemporary discursive significance, were rhetorically deployed specifically to legitimate Liberia’s new policy direction, without those cultural and discursive resources such actions would seem to have been unlikely. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. ii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS .......................................................................................................v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2 WHY “AFRICA”? .................................................................................. 47 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY .................................................................................. 79 CHAPTER 4 IMAGINING LIBERIA AND AFRICA ................................................ 114 CHAPTER 5 ENACTING LIBERIA .......................................................................... 175 CHAPTER 6 LIBERIANIZATION OF AFRICA ....................................................... 201 CHAPTER 7 AFRICANIZATION OF LIBERIA ....................................................... 261 CHAPTER 8 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................... 323 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................... 340 iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Illustration Figure 1. Africanist Position .................................................................................................... 227 Figure 2. Regionalist Position.................................................................................................. 231 v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In the years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the use of the concept of identity as a critical explanatory category in International Relations (IR) has proliferated, especially with the emergence of new states in the world, numerous prolonged conflicts throughout the 1990s, and additionally the global processing of the events of September 11, 2001. Seemingly endless debates have taken place over whether or not the conflicts of our era are indeed reflective of a world of clashing civilizations, as has been asserted by scholars such as Samuel Huntington (1993; 2003). How can we explain world politics in terms of identity and not only with regard to how the resources of the world are distributed or who has a larger arsenal? The intersection of identity and the conduct of foreign relations serve as the broader intellectual context for this investigation into a puzzling shift in the 1970s foreign policy of a small nation on the west coast of Africa: Liberia. At the beginning of the 1970s, Liberia shifted from a reflexive allegiance to the United States (US) to a more autonomous and anti-colonial foreign policy. This shift was remarkable considering that Liberia’s relationship with the US had preceded even its existence as a state. African-American repatriates from the US had founded Liberia in 1847. The settlers, imbued with the ideas of the 19th century American society in which they had spent their lives, established a republic that reflected American institutions (Liebenow 1969, 1987; Beyan 1991; Claude NC 2004). In succeeding years, strategic interventions by the US at critical historical moments helped the Liberian state maintain its sovereignty and protect its territory (d’Azevedo 1969: 53; Gershoni 1985; Normandy 1993; Agyeman-Duah 1994: xvii). In communications and interactions over those years, high-level Liberian and American state officials regularly referred to the “special relationship” between the two states. During World War II, Liberia provided 1 troops and resources and allocated land for a military base for the Allied effort (Siklo 2000). In the Cold War that followed, Liberia unequivocally supported the US’s policy of containment. Unswervingly, Liberia sided with the US in international forums (Dunn 1979; Kieh 1982; Sesay 1985). Extensive economic ties included Liberia’s use of US currency, frequent US loans to Liberia, the US’s status as Liberia’s major trading partner, and the advantages that elite Liberians enjoyed as a result of US multinational corporations operating within Liberia’s borders. In view of all these benefits that had accrued to Liberia from its connection with the United States, the shift in Liberian foreign policy during the Tolbert administration seems almost inexplicable. Twenty-five years into the Cold War, the Tolbert administration (1971-1980) established full diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, several Eastern European states, Cuba, and North Korea. It entered into a defense pact with the communist state of Guinea. It broke ties with Israel and established relations with Arab states, taking up the Palestinian cause. It sought to renegotiate concession agreements with US and European businesses, which had strongly benefited foreign interests over Liberian ones. Additionally, Liberia turned from its US orientation to provide leadership, financial assistance, and support to African liberation movements, particularly in international forums like the United Nations (UN), the non-aligned movement (NAM), and the Organization of African Unity (OAU). All of these moves risked Liberian relations with the US and its allies, which Liberia had doggedly cultivated for decades. How can we account for these changes in Liberian foreign policy? Although a few studies on Liberia mention this shift in Liberian foreign policy, none has offered an adequate account of why or how the shift occurred (Lowenkopf 1976; Carlisle 1981; Sisay 1985; Kieh 1992; Dunn 2009). This study will investigate why the Liberian state moved toward a more autonomous, anti-colonial foreign policy during the early