Bras. Political Sci. Rev.2012;6(2):114-8.
Africa in International Politics – the interafrican system and its world insertion
DOI: 10.1590/1981-3904201200020005
“A África na Política Internacional – O sistema interafricano e sua inserção mun-dial”, written by Paulo Fagundes Visentini, full professor of International Relations at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, is an important contribution to both African studies in Brazil and to general knowledge in the field of international relations for the country as a whole. The author, a renowned Brazilian historian and an international relations expert, detains vast academic publications and has been for some time now dedicating himself to the study and analysis of Brazil-Africa relations, the international insertion of African states and the formation and development of the interafrican system itself. Therefore, the book here addressed is the result of years of research and thoughtful consideration from the author upon this theme, which included research field trips to Africa to accomplish this task.
In Brazil, studies — and, consequently, the knowledge and thinking about international relations in Africa — are still modest. It is, in fact, astonishing that in a country with such a territorial dimension as Brazil, long historical ties with the African continent and with a significant presence of afrodescent population, not to mention the enormous and increasing diplomatic, trade, economic and financial interests on “the other side” of the Atlantic, has produced so little about African realities. In this sense, Paulo Visentini’s book is a bearer of good news not only for the Brazilian academy but also for a varied and not specialist public. As a matter of fact, the author himself, in the introduction, directs the readers of the university-manual format of the book precisely in order to present Africa and its main analytical debates to students, its predominant target audience.
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