Benefits of economic diplomacy : evaluation of Namibia's economic diplomacy in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Abstract

Namibia attained her independence on the 21 March 1990, exactly at the time of the end of the Cold War and the declining ideological warfare between two major super powers, thereby giving birth to a new foreign policy approach on domestic, developmental, regional and global economic issues. This was perhaps what former US President George H. Bush envisioned as a ‘new world order.’ At independence, Namibia formulated her foreign policy instruments based on Article 96 of the Namibian Constitution. Namibia’s foreign policy has been influenced by its historical armed struggle against colonialism, apartheid and imperialism. The rationale behind the focus of the Namibian government is therefore to ensure promotion of national security, peace and prosperity as well as enhance global peace and security. In 1998, Namibia together with Angola and Zimbabwe military troops into the DRC to assist the government of late President Laurent Desire Kabila fight against military forces from neigbouring Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi that occupied the eastern of the country. Namibia’s involvement in the DRC conflict was seen as a direct confrontation with military forces from Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, who were on the pretext of helping rebel movements which until November 2012, continued to occupy much of the DRC’s eastern parts. Namibia withdrew its troops in July 2001. On the political and diplomatic levels, Namibia established its Embassy in Kinshasa on 16 November 2000, and that based on principle of reciprocity, the DRC also opened fully fledged Embassy in Windhoek in 2005. Despite that fact that the DRC benefited from Namibia’s military and diplomatic efforts, there is very little evidence that indicates Namibia’s meaningful economic presence in the in the country it assisted during its difficult times. Actually, this means to say, there is strong evidence that suggest that Namibia-DRC relations are based merely on political interests with very little economic diplomacy benefits for Namibia. Namibia’s both military interventions and diplomatic initiatives taken together did not lead to the strong partnership and desired results between the two countries as many would have expected, neither the existence of a number of draft legal instruments of cooperation between the two countries and the Joint Permanent Commission of Cooperation seem to work perfectly well for the economic benefits for Namibia. This research project is proposed to evaluate Namibia’s policy of economic diplomacy, examine the current status of the bilateral relations between Namibia and the DRC in order to establish why there seems to be very little economic benefits for Namibia despite the assumed excellent relations. The research project is intended to analyze important previous studies conducted in the field of economic diplomacy and then conduct an investigation into what could be the possible barriers and obstacles standing in the way of the two countries’ relationships. In order to contribute to a growing body of literature concerned with economic diplomacy and international relations, this paper will suggests certain research priorities in this area. If barriers and obstacles are established, it might be possible to look towards the use of Namibia’s economic diplomacy as a strategy to promote national interests towards attaining maximum economic benefits in its relations with the Democratic Republic of Congo.