AFRICA | Congress Beyond the West: Politics of the Global South

In the globalized world and in the increasingly complex inter-state dynamics, the international political debate has a great tendency to focus on a restricted set of countries, which consciously and unconsciously we assume as the main players of this "game" that is the international arena. We tend to forget the Global South, and, when we talk about it, the discussions end up in the usual topics, making it very difficult to look beyond the Western lenses with which we are used to seeing and reading the world. When it comes to Africa, the situation is similar - we are used to thinking and debating Africa (because the Conferences on this topic and the academic discourse have taught us so) from a distant, shortsighted, and somewhat west-centered perspective.

We usually focus too much on identifying structural problems and trying to solve them, rather than trying to understand, first and foremost, why they continue to exist. The truth is that to continue to speak of Africa as a unit, ignoring the complexity and the heterogeneity of the continent, and to perpetuate the intensive reading of the usual problems will do little to the enlargement and enrichment of this debate.

In this sense, NECPRI sought to promote an event focused on the African continent while endeavoring to put aside the usual historical issues and trying to avoid, as much as possible, the forced generalizations that a meager hour and a half of discussion could lead us to. Focusing on some specific cases, we tried to bring to those who watched us issues such as Democracy, Covid-19, Multilateralism, Humanitarian Intervention, and Terrorism, to be discussed by our panel of experts. Aware that our Conference is only a minimal effort in this direction, we genuinely hope that those who watch it enjoy this debate that has been created, and that with it they might be able to see and think Africa through another lens.