Rethinking the “international”: Contextualizing Pan-Africanism as an international relations theory in a changing global (dis)order

In this paper, we ask, to what extent can Pan-Africanism constitute a valid theory of international relations? Using a qualitative methodology and a critical analytical framework, we position Pan-Africanism as an international relations theory. This paper argues that Pan-Africanism contains within it unique resources for analysis of global affairs in ways that recenter excluded voices from the Global South. The emerging possibilities of a fundamental shift from the trans-Atlantic world to that of an interlocking regional world of Afro-Euro-Asia make a strong case for the validity of Pan-Africanism as a theory of international relations.