Nigeria's Border Diplomacy

This book examines the ways in which Nigeria's borders are used as instruments of soft and hard power in the country's relations with other African states. Across land, air, sea, cyber-space, and even outer space, Nigeria uses its borders to insert the country into the heart of African geopolitics. Drawing on the African realist conception of African internationalism, this book analyses how the country exerts the geographic advantage of its territoriality as a diplomatic instrument to assert its regional aspirations. The authors also examine how Nigeria positions itself amongst its direct West African neighbours and within the ECOWAS 'borderless Protocols' and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the book goes further to consider how Nigeria uses non-physical borders, deploying space exploration and cyber security initiatives to further its hegemonic influence in Africa. This book will be of interest to researchers across the fields of Political Science, International Relations, Border Studies and African Studies.