African policies of Nordic countries

"African Policies of Nordic Countries" Nordic countries located in the north of Europe are states that share a number of social, economic and political characteristics such as geographical locations, closely intertwined historical relationships, and similar inclusive, tolerant, egalitarian, social welfare and democratic political systems. However, despite these positive images of the Nordic countries today, they have also had negative features such as occupying each other's lands and carrying out colonial activities on each other's lands. Like many other Western states, Nordic countries, which are known for these above mentioned good features in the international system, try to cooperate with African countries that are struggling to integrate into the global system. As a matter of fact, the decolonization process and the struggle for political freedom dominated Africa in the post-World War II period. In that period, the Nordic countries, using the advantages of not having a colonial past in Africa, also supported the liberation struggles of African states. However, despite all these favorable conditions, when we look at the first contacts of the Nordic countries with Africa, colonialism and slave trade also come to the fore. After African states gained their independence, the importance of the continent increased for a number of reasons such as rich natural resources and young population, and Africa needed foreign aid for its development. Nordic countries, which established deep-rooted relationship with African states for missionary, trade, exploration, etc. reasons in the past, have continued the relationship focusing on the development area. In this study was conducted to examine the policies of the Nordic countries on the African continent. In this context, the main motivations of the Nordic countries Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland in their orientation to Africa were analyzed and the foreign policy dynamics, internal and external factors affecting the process were determined. In this study, which was carried out from the conceptual framework of the foreign policy-religion relationship and the foreign policy-foreign aid relationship, a Neoclassical Realist approach was adopted as a basis and the African policies of the Nordic countries, which were examined one by one with the inductive method, were also studied compared with the comparative foreign policy analysis method. African policies of the Nordic countries throughout the history heve been affected by international conditions, different actors and processes within the countries and have become a synthesis of all these factors. In the section where the African policies of the northern countries are compared, the similarities and differences in the policies of these countries and the areas in which they stand out are also mentioned. Finally, within the scope of the findings obtained as a result of the study, by emphasizing the political importance of Africa, it is discussed how the African-Nordic particular relationship might be affected by the changing global order in the future, and whether the African-Nordic cooperation could continue to develop and be valid for both sides were also discussed. Keywords: Nordic Countries, Africa, Neoclassical Realism, Foreign Policy, Development Assistance