Hard and Soft Power Politics- the Dynamics of Oyo-Dahomey
International Journal of Law, Political Science, and Administration Vol.1, No.2, pp.11-30, March 2014 Published by British Research Institute UK (www.gbjournals.org) HARD AND SOFT POWER POLITICS: THE DYNAMICS OF OYO-DAHOMEY DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS 1708-1791 Femi Adegbulu (Ph.D) ABSTRACT: This paper, following the assumptions of the Realist School, takes a critical look at ‘power’ and the use of it, with relations to pre-colonial Oyo and her neighbor, Dahomey in the eighteenth century. The purpose being to examine the extent to which ‘power’ determined the foreign policies of the two Powers during this period. The paper observes that while ‘soft power’ (as postulated by its chief proponent, Joseph Nye) was sparingly deployed by Oyo to achieve her foreign policy objectives, she more often than not exhibited her ‘hard power’ potentials which involved coercion and the threat of it, to resolve some irreconcilable politico-economic issues. More importantly, and acutely germane to contemporary discourse on global relevance, the paper challenges notions in certain quarters that pre-colonial West Africans were insulated from systematic, elaborate and sophisticated art of diplomacy. KEY WORDS: Hard Power, Soft Power, Alaafin Ojigi, King Agaja, Tegbesu, Abiodun. INTRODUCTION This paper challenges the notion in certain quarters that pre-colonial West Africans were not capable of engaging in any systematic, elaborate and sophisticated art of diplomacy. Although the focus of the paper is to examine the extent to which „hard power‟ determined the foreign policy behavior of two West African countries during the pre-colonial period, it also explores though tangentially, some of the aspects of interactions between Oyo and her neighbour, Dahomey during the period under review.
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