Africa in world politics : into the 1990s /

This edited collection of ten articles, six of which have appeared elsewhere, adds to the considerable number of edited or coedited works by Shaw dealing with various aspects of the contemporary African scene. (Perhaps that is why more than 40 of the footnotes in Shaw's essay on regionalism refer to works that he himself previously authored or edited.) The editors contribute half of the articles themselves, with the bulk of the work that is original to the book coming from Ladun Anise, S.K.B. Asante, Kenneth Grundy, K. Mathews, and Emeka Nwokedi. As might be expected in a book dealing with the 1990s, half of the essays deal with various aspects of economic activities involving African states and organizations such as the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, the EEC, and The Economic Community of West African States. Other topics covered include the Non-Aligned movement, the Organization of African Unity, foreign military intervention in Africa ("the new cooperative-competitive imperialism"), and an excellent chapter by Nwokedi on France's role in Africa. The articles are well done--the book would be most appropriate for medium-sized college/university libraries, since research collections would already have most of the articles in the work. -C. W. Hartwig, Arkansas State University