ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how external economic forces – aid, trade, and investment – affect politics and policy in African countries. It proceeds in two parts. The first half is historical and descriptive, narrating a stylized but common progression of economic policies in Africa from post-colonial developmentalism to crisis, structural adjustment, and liberalization. This short history culminates with a survey of the opportunities and challenges posed by the global economy and the current workings of the international aid system. A key theme is that the impacts of aid, trade, and investment on African countries cannot be considered in isolation, as policy responses to each of these forces usually affect the other as well, and so any potential policy change requires African policymakers to juggle a complex set of considerations.
