Foreign policy in international relations

Tanzanian Experience Since Independence and Its Implications for Foreign Policy Strategies

The last few decades have seen dramatic economic improvements in large parts of the third world, while African economies in general experienced stagnation or decline until the early 1990s. During the last few years, however, there seems to have been a revival in parts of Africa. Many countries in Africa have initiated economic reform program, and some have seen significant increases in per capita incomes for the first time since the early 1970s (Bigsten & Danielson, 2001). During this same period, though, there has been a simultaneous decline in foreign aid from the developed countries which is due in large part to "donor fatigue," as well as a decline in external political interest in Africa following the end of the Cold War. Concerns over the effectiveness of foreign aid in the past have also caused increased scrutiny of these efforts. In addition, even though private resource flows to the third world to increased dramatically during the 1990s, these initiatives have largely bypassed Africa to date (Bigsten & Danielson, 2001). Further, the recent downturn in the global economy has also adversely affected Africa more so than many other continents, and suggests that different approaches to foreign policy development are going to be needed by these developing nations in the future. The purpose of this study is provide an overview of the Tanzanian experience since its independence to determine what "survival" foreign policy strategies represent the best chances for this and similarly situated developing countries during the present era of globalization. To this end, a critical review of the peer-reviewed and scholarly literature as well as relevant governmental online resources is followed by a summary of the research and important findings and recommendations in the conclusion.

Review and Discussion

Background and Overview.

Following their independence from Britain in the early 1960s, Zanzibar and Tanganyika merged to create the nation of Tanzania in 1964 (Tanzania, 2007). In 1995, the country ended its former one-party rule and the first democratic elections were held in the country since the 1970s; also since 1975, Zanzibar's semi-autonomous status and popular opposition have engaged in two hotly contested elections which the ruling party has won in spite of international observers' claims that there were voting irregularities involved (Tanzania, 2007). Although Tanzania has not experienced military intervention in its political process since 1964, the country continues to be perceived by some members of the international community as being less than democratically reliable, particularly since the country has only held its first democratic and multiparty election in October 1995 (Staibano & Wallensteen, 2005).

The country's political ideology, then, as well as its foreign policy, have been largely influenced by the changing personal exigencies of its four presidential leaders since its independence in 1964, presidents Nyerere, Mwinyi, Mkapa and, since December 21, 2005 President Jakaya Kikwete (Tanzania, 2007). According to Saideman (2001), for the first time in the new country's history, President Nyerere enjoyed a mass-based, non-ethnic political structure that meant he was not compelled nor constrained by the ethnic composition of his constituency, particularly as it related to the crafting of foreign policy: "Thus, Nyerere's ability to develop a foreign policy suggests that political competition, or its absence, is a critical factor in foreign policymaking" (p. 76). This lack of timely public debate concerning the pressing issues facing the country suggests that these leaders formulated foreign policy according to personal whim rather than the needs of their country, and the effect of this turbulent past has been significant. Today, Tanzania remains one of the poorest countries in the world today with a number of challenges and obstacles confronting it, and these issues are discussed further below.

Economic Status of Tanzania Today.

According to U.S. government analysts, Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world that remains highly dependent on foreign aid just to maintain the status quo. The Tanzanian economy is agricultural based, representing almost 50% of the country gross domestic product (GDP), and accounts for fully 85% of its exports; furthermore, agriculture provides employment for 80% of the country's workforce (Tanzania, 2007). Despite this emphasis and reliance on agriculture, Tanzania is not particularly well suited for the industry and its topography and climatic continue to restrict cultivated crops to just 4% of the country's total land area (Tanzania, 2007).

The country is also faced with something of a so-called "resource curse," wherein it has some abundant natural resources, including hydropower, tin, phosphates, iron ore, coal, diamonds, gemstones, gold, natural gas, nickel (Tanzania, 2007), but has been unable to exploit them to their maximum advantage because of the impact of its colonialist past. The term, "resource curse," was first coined by Auty (1993) in his study, "Sustaining Development in Mineral Economies: The Resource Curse Thesis," by which he referred to a phenomenon in which natural-resource rich countries, primarily in the developing world, appear to have failed to realize their full economic potential because of exploitation by others. According to Auty, "The conventional view concerning the role of natural resources in economic development has been that the resource endowment is most critical in the early low-income stages of the development process. It assumes that, as development proceeds and a population acquires more and more skills, those skills are deployed with increasing effectiveness to counteract any resource deficiencies" (1993, p. 1).

Despite its mineral wealth, industry in Tanzania has been concentrated on the processing of the country's agricultural products and light consumer goods; however, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and bilateral donors have donated resources in an attempt to rehabilitate Tanzania's obsolete economic infrastructure and to alleviate the impoverished conditions of its people (Tanzania, 2007). According to U.S. government analysts, "Long-term growth through 2005 featured a pickup in industrial production and a substantial increase in output of minerals led by gold. Recent banking reforms have helped increase private-sector growth and investment. Continued donor assistance and solid macroeconomic policies supported real GDP growth of nearly 6% in 2006 (Tanzania, 2007, p. 4).

Other profound problems facing the country today include a dismal (but improving) literacy rate which has historically compounded the incidence of domestic violence against Tanzania women (Larsen, McCloskey & Williams, 2005). The current estimates of Tanzania's literacy rates are provided in Table 1 and Figure 1 below.

Table 1.

Current literacy rates in Tanzania.

Component Percent Literate

Total Population: 78.2%

Male: 85.9%

Female: 70.7% (2003 est.)

Note: Definition of literacy is someone age 15 and over can read and write Kiswahili (Swahili), English, or Arabic.

Figure 1. Current literacy rates in Tanzania.

Source: Based on data in Tanzania, 2007 at p. 3.

According to Larsen and her colleagues (2005), "Expanded access to education for women may reduce intimate partner violence in northern urban Tanzania" (p. 124).

In his study, "The Persistence of Subsistence and the Limits to Development Studies: The Challenge of Tanzania," Waters (2000) reports that, "The Tanzanian government has used standard policies grounded in neoclassical and world-system assumptions since independence. But both policies failed to produce the predicted economic growth" (p. 614). This author maintains that both policies failed because the Tanzanian peasantry, like the early modern European peasantry, is not dependent on the operation of world capitalism for basic subsistence. In fact, as studies have shown, rural Tanzania is only weakly incorporated into the capitalist world system, and in consequence has not been an easy target for what world-system theorists call 'peripheral integration'. What makes Tanzania different is the fact that the rural peasantry do not use market mechanisms in the distribution of the 'means of production', especially arable land for swidden agriculture, or, for that matter, labor or cattle" (p. 614).

Formulating Survival Foreign Policies.

The current controversy concerning Tanzanian development and the need for more effective foreign policy decision-making processes generally focus on the impact of various policy decisions on the nation's relations with its neighbors and the international community rather than on historical processes. According to Waters, though, "Behind all [policy-making] approaches are typically found assumptions grounded in Western ideas about such processes. On one side is the neoclassical invisible hand that stresses the wealth generated by the 'miracle of the market place.' On the other are the world systems theorists focused on the class structure -- and consequent impoverishment -- which also emerge as the very same miracle takes hold" (p. 614). Both sides of the controversy have used micro and macro studies to support their respective positions, but by the late 1990s, advocates of a free market were not looking at any success stories in Tanzania, but rather to countries such as South Korea, Thailand, China, Uganda, Botswana, the Czech Republic, and Chile, where these countries experienced double-digit economic growth following the liberalization of their markets (Waters, 2000). Unfortunately for the theorists, though, as well as for its citizens, Tanzania did not fit any such neat little pigeonhole that could help them sort out the fundamental problems the country was facing (Waters, 2000).