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Steven Pierce, Moral Economies of Corruption: state formation and Political culture in Nigeria. Durham NC: Duke University Press (hb US$104.95-978 0 8223 6077 3; pb US$27.95-978 0 8223 6091 9). [...]

Teaching Africa within international relations (IR) carries a responsibility to engage students with the power relations that dominate Africa’s global position and ‘western’ knowledge of the continent. The key contribution of this article is to highlight the significance of difference and power relations not only when these are manifested in the identities present within the classroom but also just as importantly when they are not. The article argues that positionality and representations profoundly shape engagement with Africa. Who is in the classroom particularly matters when teaching material embedded in ongoing colonial relations. Disrupting students’ assumptions, such as their alignment with Western actors who will ‘solve’ Africa’s problems, may therefore involve disempowering them. By doing so, it is possible to potentially establish more productive starting points for learning about Africa within IR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the literature concerning the emergence of developmental states in Africa and gives an overview of debates on the usefulness of the 'East Asian model' for sub-Saharan Africa. The conclusion highlights how historic developmental states were often the product of trial and error rather than a grand plan; the concept of a developmental state therefore often works less as a model and more as a 'buzzword' with its own uses and effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]