The balancing policies of Sub-Saharan African states: A regional analysis

"The Balancing Policies of Sub-Saharan African States: A Regional Analysis" Sub-Saharan African states, whose foreign policies date back to the pre-colonial period, have been the scene of both intra-contiential and extra-continental power struggles until today. Continental countries, which lost their independence with the colonial period, also struggled to gain their independence. In the process of statehood that emerged after independence, these countries did not undergo a natural stateization process due to the borders drawn by European countries without regard to religion, language, ethnic group, and the interventions made to the continent; they have faced many problems such as civil war, corruption, poverty, insufficient infrastructure and lack of technical knowledge. In addition to these problems, the continental countries, whose independence mostly coincided with the Cold War period, also witnessed the power struggle of the bipolar system. While the Eastern Bloc-Western Bloc polarization has benefited African countries from time to time, it has sometimes harmed African countries. With the survival instinct given by the colonial experience, the weak African states needed a balance policy. Therefore, the foreign policies of Sub-Saharan African states have been predominantly interest-oriented in order to survive and to overcome the deficiencies of the state such as basic infrastructure and technical knowledge. The main purpose of this study is to investigate how African states, which have established various foreign relations in order to survive and to gain benefits, mostly economic, establish these relations and what they balance. To achieve this goal, two countries from every four geographically separated regions in Sub-Saharan Africa were selected for the case study. The number of foreign diplomatic missions, military and economic power were decisive in the determination of these countries. Based on these parameters, the strongest and weakest states from each region were determined and the main motivations and trends in their foreign policies were examined. While researching the countries' struggles for survival, which foreign power they need for what, and what kind of benefit they get from which country, the realist theory that focuses on these concepts has been utilized, and the main trends in the foreign policies of the selected countries have been compared and discussed. Key Words: Sub-Saharan Africa, Realism, Balance Policy