This book analyses the foreign policies of African countries, specifically in the region of East Africa.

It reveals the regional dynamics and the way in which the international system interacts with these policies and how they are driven by domestic politics versus national visions, and vice versa. As such, it provides fine-grained and historically informed analyses of the international relations of these states arguing that foreign policy is always informed by domestic processes and the relations between states and changes within the international system impact on the formulation of domestic politics via foreign policy. Finally, the book argues that East Africa’s foreign policy is not one of militarised action alone but rather a mélange of self-survival strategies stemming from the desire to close the gap with more industrialised states necessitating a variety of trade and diplomatic efforts.

This book is of key interest to scholars and students of African politics, Foreign Policy, Foreign Policy Analysis, International Organisations and, more broadly, to comparative politics and international relations.