That Africa one of the superpowers' crucial diplomatic and economic battlegrounds now verges on political developments as dramatic as those of eastern Europe compels us to consider the tremendous influence that East and West have wielded in recent African political development. Drawing from American diplomatic archives, firsthand interviews, and the African and international press, Zaki Laidipresents a historical analysis of how the dialectical relationships of the United States, Soviet Union, and African actors evolved to their present state.
The lapse of European influence in the 1960s...

In this text, Zaki Laidi argues that as our world becomes ever larger, our ability to find meaning in it diminishes. With the end of communism came the end of the intimate alliance between power and ideology. No power in our globalized world can any longer claim to provide meaning. In despair we look back to old models (religious traditions, nationalism, ethnicity) to give us a sense of identity. But how effective are these old certainties in a globalized world in a permanent state of flux?

The dynamic that currently underlies global social change is the product of forces that are not of a single type or origin. As a consequence, that change is experienced as a process that uproots individuals but gives no guidance for the future, that destroys but does not reconstruct, that prescribes action but provides no reassurance. The radical uncertainty it engenders is an understandable source of anxiety: the rich countries are increasingly worried about competition from low-wage economies, while the wretched of the earth suspect their precarious existences will come under even greater...

Does Europe have the means to defend its own social model in a globalized world at a time when the United States, China, India and Russia are concerned by enhancing their national sovereignties and playing power politics? Would Europe, who would never be a "super state," be able to impose norms over force? That is the main question this book addresses in a very original way.

Through an analysis of the general principles of Obama's foreign policy, LaIdi shows how Obama has charted a realist course in the Middle East, in Europe, in diplomacy, and in war.

Can Europe defend its social model in a globalized world when the US, China, India and Russia are enhancing their national sovereignties and playing power politics? This original and informative book addresses such questions and considers if Europe, although it is not a 'super state', would be able to impose norms over force.