Publication

This paper discusses key aspects of the African Union's New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) initiative. It analyzes the ways internal and external factors shape African identity as well as NEPAD's attempts to influence the rest of the world and to transform the Africans' understanding of themselves in an effort to create a competitive, self-sufficient African entity. The paper concludes that NEPAD can be seen as a civilizational project that seeks to pursue dialogues with other regions of the world - and thereby to influence the opinions that prevail in those regions - as well as to create new confidence on the African continent itself.