The Foreign Policy of Tanzania: From Cold War to Post-cold War

Abstract

;:~as scholarly perspectives shift to studying the post-Cold War era ~ globalization, conditionalities, and the emergence of new issues shaping the foreign policies of African states, it should be underscored that this "newest" era is not entirely novel. The role played by the international financial institutions, such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, is hardly new. Structural adjustment programs of the 1980s and 1990s and the accompanying conditionalities are part of a long trend of policies imposed upon Africa, often with disastrous results. The struggles for democratization of political economy and society are also not entirely new phenomena. Internal pressures for democratic reforms were evident long before the global popularization of democracy and human rights was triggered by events in Eastern Europe at the end of the 1980s.What is new, perhaps, is the external pressure for democratization that has become an important aspect of IFI and donor political conditionalities. Because of this, the focus of foreign relations has shifted away ( from diplomacy and ideological posturing to economic restructuring and / ~lization. ~ Against this background, this chapter attempts to reconstruct and reinterpret Tanzania's foreign policy. Although specific issues have changed over time, it is argued that the basic structural conditions and factors that have shaped foreign policy since independence in 1961 have not fundamentally altered. These resilient factors are primarily (1) the colonial legacy, (2) idiosyncratic variables, and (3) the phenomena of economic underdevelopment and external dependence. The basic socioeconomic and political conditions that have influenced foreign policy are examined first, followed by a discussion of trends and changes that have evolved over time.