Zimbabwe's International Relations
Fantasy, Reality and the Making of the State

A study of the state and international relations of Zimbabwe from the perspective of their citizens.

Julia Gallagher (Author)

9781316634271, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 5 March 2020

198 pages
23 x 15 x 1 cm, 0.35 kg

Zimbabwe is a state that has undergone significant ruptures in its domestic and international politics in recent years. This book explores how Zimbabwean citizens have, under difficult circumstances, reconstructed ideas of their state by imagining the wider world. Unlike other work on international relations, which tends to focus on the state level, this book is based on the accounts of ordinary people. Drawing on interviews with more than two hundred Zimbabweans, collected over three years, Gallagher explores how citizens draw on emotional responses to the international to find and construct different 'others'. While this unique and compelling read will appeal to those researching Zimbabwe, Gallagher's wider conclusions will interest those studying and advancing the broader theoretical debates of international relations.

1. Introduction: projection, introjection and recognition in international relations
2. Mugabe vs Blair: the dynamics of projection
3. Fragmented Zimbabwe
4. Introjection: imagining the good state
5. Recognition: Zimbabweans and their neighbours
6. 2013: Zimbabwe repaired?
7. Conclusion: fantasy and reality in international relations
8. Postscript: recognition in research.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS], Politics & government [JP], African history [HBJH]