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UNITED NATIONS, DECOLONIZATION, AND SELF-DETERMINATION IN COLD WAR SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA, 1960-1994, THE
Journal of Third World Studies, Fall 2005 by O'Sullivan, Christopher
Although the initial era of decolonization has passed, the consequences of the colonial period, the Cold War, and their aftermath continue to challenge the institutions of the United Nations. The Cold War struggle suspended the vision of an international effort on behalf of Africa for almost half a century, but today, with the potential for a greater degree of cooperation among the permanent five, multilateral approaches to peacekeeping and cooperative approaches to nation-building are more likely. However, a number of potentially destabilizing African hotspots remain where UN peacekeepers have been excluded and, in all likelihood, will continue to be excluded into the foreseeable future. Recent collaborative peacekeeping endeavors between the United Nations and the Organization of American States, the Organization for security and Cooperation in Europe, NATO, the Organization of African Unity, and the Economic Community of West African States, have demonstrated the renewed potential of regional approaches to peacekeeping and nation building, not only for Africa, but for much of the world, as well.32
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At the start of the 21st century the UN is continuing to develop its role in world affairs. Africa has been a particular and persistent challenge. The United Nations has faced the consequences of decolonization, the Cold War, and the struggle for self-determination with decidedly mixed results. Although the era of decolonization and self-determination has largely passed, the crises associated with those processes remain. The African continent, particularly the sub-Saharan region, continues to confront the UN with an almost insoluble number of challenges in the areas of humanitarian relief, health care, peacekeeping and peacemaking, and economic development. With the accession of Secretary General Annan, there has been a renewed focus at the UN on the plight of the continent. However, the West appears to have little desire to become more engaged in African problems.
After independence, postcolonial Africa desperately needed investment, development assistance, relief from poverty and famine, educational reform, health care, and support for nascent institutions of selfgovernment. Yet the outside world, when taking notice of Africa at all, often seemed more interested in geopolitical gains and securing and extracting Africa's resources. Africa most needed a broad international consensus in support of economic development and democratization. Instead, the world took an increasingly narrow ideological view of Africa's problems, seeking Cold War geopolitical advantage at every turn. Postcolonial Africa became the ultimate zero-sum playing field of the Cold War. Important opportunities were lost to Africans, but also to the wider world, which would have benefitted from African development and stability.
More than a decade after the end of the Cold War, despite the United Nations' focus on these and other regional matters, and despite the increasingly globalized nature of UN operations and programs, sub-Saharan Africa remains the most marginalized and underdeveloped region in the world. More than four decades since the heady beginnings of African decolonization, the annual United Nations Human Development Index, measuring life expectancy, educational attainment, and income levels, persistently places 25 African nations at the very bottom of its rankings, including areas of substantial UN involvement such as the Congo, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Angola, and Mozambique. Few places have felt the brunt of Cold War geopolitics, and few places continue to suffer from the consequences of the East-West conflict, as do the states of sub-Saharan Africa.33
