Westphalia Has Failed Africa And Africa Has Failed Westphalia!

People belong to societies or social groups some of which are gender, ethnic, race, skills and status related.

When nations were formed in Africa under a Westphalian model, most African social groups found themselves on different sides of borders.

This division has had political, social and economic policy outcomes in Africa. But what is the background to the Westphalian model? What is good, bad and ugly about it ?

Westphalia treaty has its historical roots in the Thirty Years War (1618−1648), that was concluded by the Peace Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. A state is a sovereign according to the Westphalia Treaty of 1684.

Being at war for this long disrupted so much civility, law and order. It ushered in dissatisfaction, rebelliousness, brutality, repression, bitterness, severe hardships, deaths in the millions, famine, desolation, caused indescribable disarray, mayhem and plague.

Westphalian Foundations influenced modern International Relations (IR), Global Politics and Global Security. The modern system of IR, functioned from 1648 to 1945 to the advantage of the West because the European countries had a geographical base, strong governments, the ability to renegotiate peace pacts, economic and war machinery to show. With this power base these countries were able to motivate their people to remain engaged in progressive production. After 1945, this led to an establishment of mechanisms, e.g, Congress of Vienna 1814 and 1815, of a stable distribution of power and broad acceptance of the rules that govern the conduct of international relations, according to scholars.

Even before 1945, the colonies remained a source of revenue, e.g., in case of Portugal, Spain, Denmark and Netherlands. Countries with armies sold them off to the highest bidders, e.g. Sweden. Industrial centers were not destroyed despite the wars, e,g, United Kingdom, Belgium and France. This was the foundational bastion of Westphalia in Europe.

Westphalia is a midwife who presided over the delivery of two full term births of Europe and America and a premature Africa who is still in an incubator. African states cannot fully enjoy the liberties that Western states enjoy. From time to time, African states have had to borrow a lot of money for large scale projects, have to beg for economy strangling sanctions to be lifted, tread carefully when dealing with or not criticize Western countries otherwise they may risk losing much needed development grants.

For Africa, Westphalia was/is still a castle in the air lacking the foundational bastion upon which to found such pillars of development like those seen in USA and Europe.

Westphalia has produced six scenarios in Africa:

-a small hegemony of state rulers and leaders who by all definition are legitimate and negotiate on behalf their representative states. But, most times end up engaging in private profiteering and rent-seeking. Thus, enriching themselves, those around a president or chief and depriving so much resources and opportunities for a wider population. In many cases, the army, press, civil service, economics, judiciary, legislature and executive creates elite members more than ready to do the bidding of a powerful few as well as lock out others in power positions.

-a state may decided to persecute some people while protecting others. People can organize themselves into a collective body and decide to meet certain objectives which may include self determination, practicing their unique traditions, survival, improving on dignity and social economic standing. These could be women, men and marginalized people of all kinds. Women have for long been denied access to development opportunities so they can now organize to address such needs and access funding for such purpose. People living with HIV have organized into international non governmental organizations and through this they have accessed opportunities that drive optimal ARV adherence. People like the Rohingya, kurds, Yazidi and pygmies have been able to advocate for themselves and that way their survival has become part of the peace movement and agenda.

-the leadership fails to let liberty, life and pursuance of happiness percolate down and be owned by people other than those in the elite/ruling class.

-and has led to government or party-in-power sanctioned divisions between the haves and have nots!

-the rich north/poor south dichotomy is more apparent. There is a tendency for the richer US, Germany, UK, France to criticize the poorer African countries and get away with it contradicting international relations protocol. A thing Africans call imperialist.

-African are discovering sooner than later that they do not have to work as single states but can work are regional settings to leverage the social-political advantages of bigger economic regions.

It is only after visiting Europe, N & S. Korea, China, Iran, Turkey, India, Pakistani and America that Africans had their eyes opened. Also, the fact that non state actors, such as INGOs, today have influence changes so many ways to relate internationally.

A people who had the knowledge, expertise and experience of coming up with air-tight treaties, with built-in compromises, would use them differently when it came to dealing with Africa. In what was known as the "Concert of Europe," weakened France was allowed into the partnership that made Europe stronger. Later after World War II, Germany and Japan were treated as equals and they were even provided large sums for reconstruction with very manageable conditions. Compare this with World Bank and IMF conduct toward Africa.

The scope, lessons, results and consequences for the European history in general would have been well used when dealing with Africa.

Africa could have been in position to contribute to a world order instead of the chaos and strife characteristic of today. Ideally, what Europe should have done was to make sure economic strength, political cohesion, and military power were tools Africans had to shape what states could and were willing to do within and beyond their borders

One discerning finger can be pointed at the notion of Westphalia as a gift given to a child but the child did not know how or never bothered to read the operational manual. This is the root of the problems one reads about or experiences in Africa. Africa needs to get hold of that manual and dedicate time to reading it! To start with, Africa must first understand trends and revisit ally-making.

Westphalia has well intentioned treaties and compromises but these were not applied fairly when it came to Africa. There are best-practices, Africa could pick up from the script. Scholars argue that, countries fall, and others rise, the result of changing capacities, faltering wills, and growing ambitions. Those responsible for upholding order make mistakes both in what they choose to do and in what they choose not to do.

Predatory deals, war, sponsored despotism and exploitation exported to Africa brings about the same scenarios experienced in Europe between 1600-1945. These left Africa economically behind and pained at how Europe treated her.

This could be why Africa is turning more to the Koreas, Iran, Turkey, Brazil, Russia and China. It could also be one reason, the idea of regionalization is taking root where by many countries come up to form a larger community. After all, the outcomes of the Berlin Conference split families into halves as borders were being drawn. Africans are related at so many levels and it would be of advantage to explore and support these relations.

The principles of IR established by the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia revolve around, collective responsibility toward security, peaceful co-existence, progressive views, respect of humans, law and order. This is the fundamental framework of both world politics and global security. But this building framework is still eluding Africa. When the Europeans found out that they were dealing with witless Africans, the idea of respectful reciprocity went south. But, in dealing with Africa, Europeans and Americans did not look far into a future when the issue of security and migration require collective approaches. Perhaps, this will serve as a lesson to foster openness and aspiration for wider serving and grander outcomes benefitting all and not a few. Otherwise, there is a risk for dissatisfaction which may be grounds for disruption of the order countries seek. Westphalia will continue failing Africa, in that the world order it promised was not provided much needed logistics when it came to Africa.

Africa has failed Westphalia, not because of malice but because She was not facilitated to nurture or leverage African characteristic non-state forces of power, e.g., ethnicities, traditions, gender and cultures on the one hand and state, government and public utilities on the other. In this set up are the very raw materials to be used to craft expertise, entrepreneurship, power, service delivery, institutions and infrastructure which can be deployed to bargain with the global powers then or now. In this day and age when new powerful actors to address pressing needs have emerged other than states Africa may be forced (if not already) to reorganize and renegotiate ways to seek alliances in Asia, Europe and America.

Treaty of Westphalia. Source: Alamy

An engraving of the Congress of Vienna, 1814. Source: Jean Baptiste Isabey

Russian soldiers in military armored personnel carriers on a road near Sevastopol, Crimea, March 2014. Source: Baz Ratner, Reuters. Below is: Iran, Turkey, Chinese, North Korea and South Korean Armies. All these have bilateral treaties with many African countries