Saadia Touval

Treaties, Borders, and the Partition of Africa

The article questions the contention that, in the process of partition and the delimitation of borders in Africa, no account was taken of local conditions. The possibility of indirect African influence on the process is examined. At least some of the treaties concluded between Europeans and African rulers were genuine, and regarded as a contractual obligation by both sides. There were cases of African rulers seeking to promote their political interests by entering into an alliance with Europeans. Such treaties were sometimes utilized by European powers in their negotiations with rivals, to support their territorial claims. There were some attempts to define colonial borders so that they coincided with the frontiers of traditional African politics. Thus, treaties between African rulers and Europeans played a role in the process of the partition. In this connexion, it is important to remember that traditional African polities were often polyethnic, or encompassed only a segment of an ethnic group, and did not correspond to the modern European concept of ‘nation states’. There were also occasions in which questions regarding the local economy and communications were considered when borders were delimited. The considerations employed may have been wrong. But it seems necessary to modify the generalization that local circumstances were disregarded in the border-making process.

The Superpowers as Mediators

The US and the Soviet Union have been involved in the mediation of numerous international conflicts since 1945. A comparison of their mediation activities reveals, however, important differences in the extent and the manner of their involvement. This chapter will examine their mediation records, and offer an explanation of the similarities and differences in their behavior.

International cooperation : the extents and limits of multilateralism

Acknowledgments About the authors List of figures List of tables 1. Introduction: return to the theories of cooperation I. William Zartman and Saadia Touval Part I. Multilateral Meanings of Cooperation: 2. Debating cooperation among states: from Grotius to Adam Smith Alexis Keller 3. The two sides of multilateralism Charles Doran 4. Multilateralism and the challenges of global governance Fen Osler Hampson 5. Negotiated cooperation and its alternatives Saadia Touval Part II. Multiple Strategies of Cooperation: 6. Negotiated cooperation: synthesizing rationalist and constructivist perspectives P. Terrence Hopmann 7. Prejudice and the shadow of the past in the emergence of cooperation Allison Stanger 8. The chicken game in international bargaining Joshua Goldstein 9. Cooperation and conflict management I. William Zartman 10. Status concerns in multilateral cooperation Deborah Welch Larson and Alexei Shevchenko 11. Asymmetric cooperation on economic assistance Jean-Claude Barthelemy 12. Conclusion: improving knowledge of cooperation Saadia Touval and I. William Zartman Bibliography.