Diplomacy and Nation-Building in Africa

Melanie Torrent is senior lecturer in British history and civilisation at the Institut Charles V, Universite Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cite. She holds an MPhil in International Relations from the University of Cambridge and completed her PhD in English Studies at the Universite Paris-Sorbonne.

• IntroductionCommonwealth membership at independence: threatening, irrelevant, impossibleChapter 1. Cameroon’s official politics: reunification and diplomatic balanceThe assets and challenges of reunification in CameroonThe national and international politics of bilingualismChapter 2. Cameroon’s diplomatic bias towards the Francophone worldFrancophone identity and Cameroon’s position in AfricaAn undesirable Commonwealth link: perceptions of Britain, Nigeria and GhanaChapter 3. The Southern Cameroons and the Commonwealth: star-crossed partners?Independence within the Commonwealth: a very fleeting offerReunification outside the Commonwealth and international pressureDevelopment politics: the Commonwealth’s continuing presence in CameroonChapter 1. France and Cameroon’s international options for developmentFrance’s heavyweight presence in CameroonTowards the diversification of partnersChapter 2. Imperial preference in West CameroonWest Cameroon and British interestsEurope, the Commonwealth and CameroonChapter 3. The Commonwealth as a valuable partnerThe influence of the Canadian mirrorThe Commonwealth, a champion for African development in times of crisis The Commonwealth’s renewed appeal and the imperative of national unityChapter 1. Cameroon’s continuing Francophone biasThe reality of reunification: from federation to centralisationCameroon’s complex relations with L’Agence de coopération culturelle et technique (ACCT)Chapter 2. The Commonwealth and the necessity of Anglophone diplomacySafeguarding national unity A way into official membership of the FrancophonieChapter 3. The democratic imperative in a multilateral contextThe changing face of Cameroonian politics The national and international instrumentalisation of diplomacyConclusionAppendicesChronology of Cameroon - Commonwealth relationsBibliographyIndex

'Melanie Torrent's book is an important scholarly contribution to international relations at the end of European empires and in the age of African independences. It will find a powerful resonance outside academia in diplomacy, not only from the point of view of the historian, but because her masterly analysis of such a complex web of political and cultural issues provides present and future practitioners on the African scene with a compelling reference, which could be termed "post-post colonial". It also undoubtedly offers a renewed approach to decolonisation and nationbuilding on the background of debates between the post-colonial theory and its consequences on the theory of international relations.' -Jean-Claude Redonnet, Professor (Emeritus) and Research Director at Universite de Paris-Sorbonne