Postcolonial Positioning: Leaders in Cote d’Ivoire and Zaire utilizing the Cold War as an Opportunity for their own Benefit

Abstract

This thesis is about two African leaders and their use of the Cold War to position themselves in the world. The thesis argues that these two leaders and their choices show that the Cold War presented in part a bundle of opportunity that African leaders could use for their benefit. With the context of the Cold War and heightened importance of allies, the two leaders seeked to associate themselves within the larger framework of globalization. Both leaders took advantage of their nation’s birth to facilitate and position it within a progressing economic and political framework.