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Cameroon's relations toward Nigeria: a foreign policy of pragmatism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2020

Julius A. Amin
Julius A. Amin*
Affiliation:
University of Dayton, 300 College Park, Dayton, OH45469-1540, USA
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Existing literature argues that the tactics of Cameroon foreign policy have been conservative, weak and timid. This study refutes that perspective. Based on extensive and previously unused primary sources obtained from Cameroon's Ministry of External Relations and from the nation's archives in Buea and Yaoundé, this study argues that Cameroon's foreign policy was neither timid nor makeshift. Its strategy was one of pragmatism. By examining the nation's policy toward Nigeria in the reunification of Cameroon, the Nigerian civil war, the Bakassi Peninsula crisis and Boko Haram, the study maintains that, while the nation's policy was cautious, its leaders focused on the objectives and as a result scored major victories. The study concludes by suggesting that President Paul Biya invokes the same skills he used in foreign policy to address the ongoing Anglophone problem, a problem that threatens to unravel much of what the country has accomplished.

Keywords

Ahmadou AhidjoPaul BiyaMuhammadu BuhariSecessionBoko Haram
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , March 2020 , pp. 1 - 22
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

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Footnotes

I extend my gratitude to Dr Paul Benson, Provost of the University of Dayton, and Dr Jason Pierce, Dean of College of Arts and Sciences, at the same university, for their financial support of my research in Cameroon. My thanks also go to the anonymous reviewers of JMAS for their constructive comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript.

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