Great Power Politics Among Asante and its Neighbours in the 18th and 19th Centuries: An Offensive Realist Explanation

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atmire.migration.oldid5583
dc.contributor.advisorHuebert, Robert Neil
dc.contributor.advisorFerris, John Robert
dc.contributor.authorYankey-Wayne, Valerie Anne
dc.contributor.committeememberHiebert, Maureen Sharon
dc.contributor.committeememberKeeley, James F.
dc.date.accessioned2017-05-02T21:29:05Z
dc.date.available2017-05-02T21:29:05Z
dc.date.issued2017
dc.date.submitted2017en
dc.description.abstractPre-colonial African history has been excluded from realists’ analysis of great power politics because they consider Africa to have had no significant history of influence before the World Wars. This thesis seeks to determine whether a pre-colonial African states system was equivalent to the European model, and whether the same factors influenced security competition and the motivation to maximize military power. The thesis answers the above assertion by testing Mearsheimer’s offensive realism’s central proposition—‘maximizing military power with the ultimate aim of becoming a hegemon is the logical solution in an anarchic environment’—against the international relations of Asante and its neighbors in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although both Africanists and realists may reject the application of offensive realism to pre-colonial African history, there is evidence to suggest that this maybe a viable argument. The Asante case, just like Mearsheimer’s great power politics of Europe, was characterized by the lack of higher authority, which generated a climate of uncertainty that manifested itself through maximization of military power, formation of alliances and wars. The African polities’ drive to maximize their military power arguably made the concept of ‘balance of power’ unworkable, in the sense that almost all the polities in the system were prepared to use military power to achieve their objectives, and this made wars more frequent. In this case, whereas Asante used military aggression to aspire for hegemony, its neighbors rather used military aggression to defend their status quo, that is, their control of the trade routes. Mearsheimer’s theory was useful in explaining how structural factors such as anarchy and the distribution of military power strongly shaped the behavior of the polities of the Asante case, but it has little to say about why Asante, a revisionist state was revisionist. Furthermore, although Mearsheimer introduces the argument that nationalism, a sub-unit factor can directly influence structural factors, it may benefit realism to build on Mearsheimer’s theory by looking into non-Western ways of thinking, which incorporates non-structural factors like collective identity (glorification of the nation) and regime (personal) power into their understanding of great power politics and revisionism.en_US
dc.identifier.citationYankey-Wayne, V. A. (2017). Great Power Politics Among Asante and its Neighbours in the 18th and 19th Centuries: An Offensive Realist Explanation (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26320en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/26320
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11023/3810
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisher.facultyGraduate Studies
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen
dc.publisher.placeCalgaryen
dc.rightsUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.
dc.subjectHistory--African
dc.subjectPolitical Science
dc.subjectPolitical Science--International Law and Relations
dc.subject.otherPre-Colonial African History
dc.subject.otherAsante Empire
dc.subject.otherGold Coast (West Africa)
dc.subject.otherOffensive Realism
dc.subject.otherMearsheimer
dc.subject.otherGreat Power Politics
dc.titleGreat Power Politics Among Asante and its Neighbours in the 18th and 19th Centuries: An Offensive Realist Explanation
dc.typedoctoral thesis
thesis.degree.disciplineMilitary and Strategic Studies
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Calgary
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
ucalgary.item.requestcopytrue
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