Though there have been numerous studies on the United Nations, only a few have dealt comprehensively with Africa’s relations with the world body. Africa in the United Nations (1945-2005) attempts to fill this lacuna by providing a systematic assessment of Africa’s relationship with the World body, from its foundation in 1945 to its sixtieth anniversary in 2005.

The premise of the book’s argument is that to properly understand Africa’s current relationship with the United Nations, it is necessary to first understand the history and theoretical underpinnings behind the formation of the world body, including the expectations and motives of the different stakeholders. The book shows that there have been some real successes in Africa’s relationship with the world body (such as the joint efforts against the Apartheid regime in South Africa) as well as real failures (such as in the genocide in Rwanda). Based on this, it concludes that Africa’s relationship with the United Nations has worked for the most part, and will work even better, if  Africa sees its partnership with the UN as complementary to it own efforts, projects and initiatives rather than something to depend on.

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 Issaka K. Souaré works at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in London. A Contributing Editor to the London-based review journal, African Renaissance, he is the author of numerous articles relating to Africa. His most recent publications have addressed Franco-Africa relations, human rights, conflict resolutions, economic development and regional integration in Africa. He is also the author of Civil Wars and Coups d’État in West Africa: An Attempt to Understand the Roots and Prescribe Possible Solutions (2006), and the novel, Samassi (2004).