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Canada's engagement with post-independence Africa presents a puzzle. Although Canada is recognized for its activism where Africa is concerned, critics have long noted the contradictions that underlie Canadian involvement. Focusing on the period following 2000, and by juxtaposing Jean Chrétien's G8 activism with the Harper government's retreat from continental engagement, David R. Black's Canada and Africa in the New Millennium illustrates a history of consistent inconsistency in Canada's relationship with Africa. Black combines three interpretive frames to account for this record: the tradition of "good international citizenship"; Canada's role as a benign face of Western hegemonic interests in Africa; and Africa's role as the basis for a longstanding narrative concerning Canada's ethical mission in the world. To examine Africa's place in Canada's foreign policy--and Canada's place in Africa--Black focuses on G8 diplomacy, foreign aid, security assistance through peace operations and training, and the increasingly controversial impact of Canadian extractive companies. Offering an integrated account of Canada's role in sub-Saharan Africa, Black provides a way of understanding the nature and resilience of recent shifts in Canadian policy. He underscores how Africa--though marginal to Canadian interests as traditionally conceived--has served as an important marker of Canada's international role

Processes of making, sustaining, reforming, and un-making world orders are constants in global politics and development. Understood in the neo-Gramscian tradition pioneered by Robert Cox, ideas, institutions, and material capabilities combine to shape the range of possibilities for more and less stable orders. Sports mega-events (SMEs)—most prominently, the Olympic Games—have played an underappreciated role in this process. This paper examines the ways in which the Olympics manifested and supported the rise of globalized neoliberal hegemony in the early 1980s, the reconfiguration and erosion of this order through the 1990s and 2000s, and efforts to fundamentally revise this order in the new millennium. Particular emphasis is placed on the dual role of SMEs and the Olympics as manifestations of conspicuous consumption and the pursuit of prestige on the one hand, and as focal points for sanctions campaigns and boycotts on the other.

The 'new' South Africa's effort to confront & bring pressure to bear on the rights-abusive Nigerian military regime of General Sani Abacha is revisited in this article as a seminal case in a pivotal relationship. The challenge posed by the Abacha regime put to the test two central pillars of post-apartheid foreign policy: the promotion of human rights & democracy; & the commitment to put Africa at the forefront of foreign policy choices. The widely held perception that the government failed to manage this test adequately led to important 'lesson-learning' among South Africa's foreign policy community, & has strongly influenced subsequent policy making, especially related to human rights. Two sets of analytical lessons are emphasized. The first concerns the complex, identity-based challenge for South Africa of becoming a country of Africa. The second concerns the role & adaptation of the country's civil society in a 'post-liberation' context. Both highlight the protracted challenges of democratic consolidation in the new South Africa. Adapted from the source document.