Role of Media in Foreign Policy Formulation in Africa: The Post-Cold War Perspective

Foreign policy is a central to a state’s approach towards its dealings with other states and lately non-state actors within the international organization. In such set up, states behave in a manner that addresses their own national interests and overall common good as liberals would put it. The core aim of the post-cold war foreign policy of African states is to harmonize domestic interests with the external environment based on the available means and resources. Despite the limited capability of post-cold war Africa, the elites endeavored to formulate foreign policies that would bring out African states as capable participants within the international sphere. Studies have been conducted on African foreign policy bringing out various actors involved as well as the context in which African foreign policies are formulated. Most studies have paid emphasis on actors of foreign policy formulation as institutional based determined by the leadership of the day and resources available. This means that African states have formulated their foreign policies based on deliberations and thought processes of the states elites. In post-independence Africa, the elites sought to trade off sovereignty with supranationalism and regional integration out of the urge to unite the geographical units created by colonial administrators to increase their global bargaining power. The unity was based on quest to achieve economic development, free market for African goods, Security allocation of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and all relevant adjustments to conform to the world order established after the end of the cold war.This paper brings out the role of media as an actor in the post-cold war foreign policy formulation process based on the changes witnessed since the end of the war linking the domestic to the international interests. The primary focus was to illustrate the historical role played by the media during the post-cold war foreign policy formulation process In Africa.