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to African Studies Review
Timothy M. Shaw
The foreign policy system of Zambia includes a different set of actors accordin
to the issue and intensity of the relationship. The primary actors in Zamb
international politics are State House, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the par
and other ministries and parastatals. Crisis management is largely a function of t
office of the president; the foreign relations group at State House is most involv
in high politics, international initiatives, and presidential activities. Zambia's poli
in southern Africa is the responsibility of State House and the Ministries of Defen
and Foreign Affairs; Zambia's policy is also coordinated with the Organisation o
African Unity (OAU) Liberation Committee Sub-Regional Office in Lusaka and t
Liberation Centre. This is the organizational center for recognized movements a
is controlled by the president's special representative who is seconded from, and
close touch with, defense (Mtshali, 1972 and 1973). Other African affairs a
coordinated by Foreign Affairs and by the ruling United National Independence
Party (UNIP). In global politics, the national interest is articulated by th
parastatals and Foreign Affairs, and other functional ministries. Table 1 presents
framework for the analysis of Zambia's foreign policy system.
This distribution of responsibilities also coincides with activities within differe
international organizations. Zambia's policy toward southern Africa is compatib
with the OAU strategy and influences its behavior toward the rest of th
international system. The defense of its national interests involves go
neighborliness with other independent states and support of political change in
minority regimes which threaten its sovereignty and ideology. This need for supp
from the OAU and provision of assistance to the liberation movements involves t
office of the president and the Ministries of Defense and Home Affairs; the arm
Level of
interaction Primary actors Major issue area
and air force, home guard, national service, police and para-milit
defend Zambia's territorial and political integrity. The State Ho
group is involved in attempting to resolve factional disputes in the liberation
movements, in suggesting presidential initiatives in the region, and in encouraging
negotiations between the movements and the minority regimes along the lines of
the Lusaka Manifesto.1 Continental relations are concentrated in the OAU and in
eastern Africa and are concerned with political and economic integration. Zambia
has been an active member of the OAU and has contributed to the development of
its policies; it regularly supplies personnel to its secretariat. It advances its national
interests and change in southern Africa by its entente with Tanzania, Botswana,
Mozambique, and Zaire; this grouping advocates change in the minority regimes,
support for the liberation movements, and cooperation among independent African
states. Integration is most advanced in the bilateral Tanzania-Zambia relationship,
which involves presidential, party, ministerial, and infrastructural ties as noted
below. In the international system, Zambia is dependent on the Western economic
system and has developed its parastatal structure to advance its interests in
cooperating with multinational corporations, especially in the mining,
manufacturing, and communications sectors. Its global relations are coordinated by
Foreign Affairs, but also include parastatals, other ministries (especially Finance
and Planning, Mining and Industry), the Bank of Zambia, and foreign and
international organization missions in Lusaka. Continental and global relations are
generally routine, but whenever they reach a crisis, the State House group becomes
involved.2
These three levels of interaction are independent: southern African policy
involves representation at the OAU and the UN and attraction of political and
material support; the role of multinational corporations in southern Africa affects
Zambia's perceptions and treatment of them in Zambia; its attitude toward
military regimes in Africa affects its policy toward similar governments in
countries of particular interest, such as Chile. However, we can distinguish between
the primacy of actors in each issue area and level of interaction. The president, or
the chief executive, is dominant in regional politics, especially those concerned with
security and liberation. Ministries and party dominate continental affairs, which are
thus characterized by a primacy of bureaucratic politics, that is, competition and
bargaining within the government. Finally, in world politics, Zambia's foreign
policy system is characterized by organizational politics, conflict both within and
especially between actors, ranging from ministries and parastatals to missions and
multinationals. Bureaucratic and organizational politics are related to low politics,
whereas presidential dominance is associated with high politics.
The variety of actors and interests in the foreign policy system of Zambia are
MINISTRY OF UNIP
DEFENCE CENTRAL COMMITTEE
Defence Sub-committee on
Control of foreign affairs
liberation Foreign policy
movements inter-party
relations
Parastatal sector
Foreign interests
(concentrated in
in Zambia
the Zambia
Industrial and
Manufacturing
Corporation,
ZIMCO)
Key: NIEC National Import and Export Corporation MEMACO Metal Marketing Corporation
FINDECO Financial Development Corporation ZNTB Zambia National Tourist Bureau
MINDECO Mining Development Corporation NTC National Transport Corporation
INDECO Industrial Development Corporation ZNEC Zambia National Energy Corporation
NHC National Hotels Corporation
Zambia is a one-party state in which the party is formally supreme: UNIP makes
foreign policy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs implements it; the president is
the head of the party as well as head of state. The Minister of Foreign Affairs
recognizes this precedence of the party and to maintain continuity is a member of
its sub-committee on political, constitutional, legal, and foreign affairs. He has
commented in parliament that:
Our foreign policy is indeed determined by the Party to which we all belong.
Foreign policy is discussed by the National Council meetings of the Party; it is
dicsussed at general conferences of the Party and it is discussed at various Party
committees. In fact we have a Sub-Committee of the Central Committee dealing
with foreign policy. This Committee decides on the policy and my Ministry
implements this policy (Daily Parliamentary Debates: Wednesday 13 February
1974 [Number 35t] Column 1399).
All MPs and heads of Zambian missions are included on the UNIP National Council
The chairman of the Central Committee Sub-Committee is now Reuben Kamanga,
who was previously Zambia's first vice-president and chairman of the party's Rural
Sept/65 Mar/66 Oct/66 Aug/67 Nov/68 Nov/69 Nov/70 Aug/71 Sept/72 Oct/73
Algeria A2 A2
Australia A2 A2
Austria C 1 C 1 C 1 C 1 C 1 C 1 C 1 C 1
Belgium E 2 E 2 E 1 E 1 E 1 E 3 E 3 E 2 E 2
Botswana HC 2 HC 2 HC 2 HC 3 HC 5 HC 5
Brazil Al Al Al
Bulgaria A2 A2
Burundi A2 A2
Cameroon A3
Canada A4 A4 A2 A2 A2 A2 HC 2 HC 3
Chile E 1 E 1 E 1 E 1 E 1 E 1
China E 5 E 5 E 5 E 5 E 4 E 3 E 19 E 25 E 29 E 28
Cuba A2
Czechoslovakia E 1 E 3 E 3 E 3 E 4 E 8 E 8 E 6 E 5 E 6
Denmark C 1 C i C 1 C 1 C 1 C 1 C 2 E 2 E 2 E 2
East Germany 0 2 0 3 0 2 0 4
Egypt (UAR) E 3 E 3 E 4 E 4 E 4 E 4 E 4 E 7 E 5 E 4
Ethiopia Al Al Al
Finland C 1 C 1 C 1 C 1 C 1 0 2
France E 2 E 4 E 3 E 5 E 5 E 2 E 10 E 13 E 12 E 10
Ghana HC 4 HC 5 Al
Greece C 1 C 1 C 1 C 2 C 2 C 2 C 2
Guinea A2 A2 A2 A2 A2 A2
Sept/65 Mar/66 Oct/66 Aug/67 Nov/68 Nov/69 Nov/70 Aug/71 Sept/72 Oct/73
Guyana HC 6
Holy See E 2 E 2 E 2 E 2 E 2 E 1 E 2 E 2 E 2
Hungary A2 A2 A2 A2 A2 h2
India HC 3 HC 3 HC 3 HC 3 HC 4 HC 7 HC 8 HIC 9 HC 11 HC 12
Ireland C 1 C 1 C 1 C 1 C 2 C 2 C 2 C 2
Israel E 1 E 2 E 2 E 3 E 3 E 3 E 2 E 2 E 2
Italy C 2 C 1 E 2 E 2 E 2 E 9 E 9 E 9 E 6 E 6
Ivory Coast A4 A4 A4
Jamaica A3 A3
Japan Al Al Al A2 A2 E 2 E 3 E 4 E 5
Kaiya HC 4 HC 7 HC 7 HC 8
Korea (North) E 3 E 5 E 4 E 9 E 8
Liberia Al A1 Al
'Malawi HC 4
Netherlands E 2 E 2 E 2 E 3 E 3 E 4 E 4 E 4 E 4
Nigeria HC 3 HC 3 HC 4 HC 6
Norway C I C 1i C i C C 1 C 1 C 1 C 4 C 4 C 4
Pakistan A2 A2 A2
Peru E 1 E 1
Poland E 1 E 1 A2 A2 A2 A2
Romania A2 A2 A2 E 8 E 10
Senegal A3 A3 A3
Sierra Leone A3 A3
Sept/65 Mar/66 Oct/66 Aug/67 Nov/68 Nov/69 Nov/70 Aug/71 Sept/72 Oct/73
Somalia E 3 E 4 E 3 E 3 E 3
Spain A2 A2 A2 A2
Sri Lanka Al
Sudan Al Al
Swaziland Al Al
Sweden C 1 C 1 C 2 E 1 E 2 E 3 E 3 E 3 E 4 E 11
Switzerland A4 A2 A2 C 2 C 2 C 2
Syria A2 A2 A2 A2 A2
Tanzania HC 3 HC 5 HC 5 HC 5 HC 6
& Tobago A3 A3
Turkey Al Al A1
USSR E 6 E 6 E 5 E 9 E 8 E 21 E 24 E 23 E 24 E 22
UK HC 15 HC 15 HC 15 HC 13 HC 14 HC 38 HC 38 HC 36 HC 30 HC 31
USA E 11 E 11 E 10 E 12 E 10 E 10 E 11 E 12 E 11 E 11
West Germany E 2 E 2 E 3 E 3 E 2 E 8 E 6 E 7 E 7 E 6
Yugoslavia E 1 E 2 E 1 E 2 E 2 E 6 E 6 E 6 E 6 E 7
Zaire E 4 E 3 E 3 E 4 E 4 E 7 E 5 E 6 E 6 E 5
UNDP 0 5 0 6 0 5 0 5 0 6 0 10 0 10 0 12 0 10 0 11
UNICEF 0 3 0 5 0 5 0 4
UNHCR 0 1 0 2 0 2 0 3 0 3 0 3 0 3 0 3
ECA 0 4 0 4 0 4 0 5 0 3 0 3 0 3 0 4 0 4 0 5
ILO 0 1 0 2 0 2 0 2 0 2 0 2
WHO 0 2 0 2 0 2 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 5 0 8 0 10 0 6
Sept/65 Mar/66 Oct/66 Aug/67 Nov/68 Nov/69 Nov/70 Aug/71 Sept/72 Oct/73
Namibia 0 1 0 1 0 2
FAO 0 1 0 0 0 1
UNIDO 0 1 0 1 0 1
OAU 0 2 0 2
UNESCO 0 1 0 1 0 0
Key: E Embassy
HC High Commission
C Consulate
0 Office
international organizations
in the field of international relations that Indeco has begun to forge links which
are truly in line with our national policy of non-alignment.
Foreign
Major foreign partners ownership
Sources: Indeco Annual Report, 1973 and 1974 and Zimco Directory, 1974 and 1975
Zambia's relations with Tanzania are close and informal; this bilateral link is
managed in a distinctive manner. Unlike other dyads, this relationship is most
decentralized and multiple (Bone, 1973a, and Show, 1976c). Although the two
countries at independence were back to back, looking south and east respectively,
their common interest in African development and liberation led to a close
relationship between Presidents Kaunda and Nyerere. Their shared perspective on
the problems of unity, freedom, and development led to an exchange of views
which has produced compatible policies on state control, political participation,
leadership codes, etc. With UDI, the relationship widened into functional
cooperation, especially in communications, with the building of the TanZam road
and Tazama oil pipeline, the establishment of TanZam Roadways, and the decision
to build the Tazara Railway with Chinese assistance (Mutukwa, 1971 and 1975).
The development of the relationship led to a diffuse set of relations, most of which
are now at ministerial level. The presidents continue to meet regularly, but now
there are routine relations between ministries, both foreign and home affairs, and
communications, industry, finance, etc. Although bilateral integration has yet to
reach the level achieved over time within east Africa, the relationship has become
informal, multiple, and free from protocol (Bone, 1968).
The primary actors in this bilateral community are both State Houses, parties,
ministries of foreign and home affairs, and the two High Commissions. The
Tanzania high commissioner in Lusaka was previously permanent secretary for
foreign affairs in Dar es Salaam. Tanzania attaches considerable importance to this
mission, and Mr. Katikaza has developed and expanded relations with both Zambia
and BLS, to which he is accredited but nonresident. He has a special status in the
diplomatic corps and has ready access to State House and ministries in Zambia. The
regular interaction between the two countries has led to an identity of views on
many issues, such as southern Africa, Biafra, the Middle East, etc. Although there
are differences of emphasis or timing, the foreign policies of Tanzania and Zambia
are mutually supportive. In particular, State Houses and Foreign Affairs exchange
notes and ideas frequently and maintain consistent views on crucial issues such as
the liberation movements, the OAU, and the nonaligned movement.
Foreign policy in both states is directed by the president, with the ministry
serving to implement these orientations; in neither state is the party particularly
dominant in external relations (Shaw, 1969 and 1974). Although the two states
have distinctive histories, societies, structures, and values, their development and
international strategies have converged. A common political perspective and style
has legitimized and stimulated functional relations. The two states and foreign
policy systems are both interdependent and integrated. However, UNIP and other
bodies in Zambia are determined never to become dependent on one route for
external trade as the inherited dependence on Rhodesia (Anglin, 1973). Intimacy
with Tanzania is checked, therefore, by a determination to diversify
We have decided to establish a career service to ensure that the people that we
train do stay and make a career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.... There will
be a system of inter-changeability between officials in the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and serving diplomats abroad. What we have proposed to do, Sir, is to
establish and strengthen the departments within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
which will eventually be headed by people who will hold the rank of Ambassador
so that if we have to transfer an Ambassador, say, from Rome to the ministry
headquarters, it will be easier for us to send a head of department from the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs to become an Ambassador abroad (Daily
Parliamentary Debates: Wednesday 13 February 1974 [Number 35t]
Column 1385).
r r r r I r r Principa
r r Under Secretary
Assistant
FJ F FJ ?-&FJ J H J H J H Secretary
I I i I I I I I I I i PI Principal
I I I I I I J I H I I I I i Accountant
I
Un
Senior Executive
Officer
Assistant
Accountant
Communications
Officer
Rank HQ A HQ A HQ A HQ A HQ A HQ
Minister 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 -
Minister of State 1 - 1 - 1 - 2 - 6
Parliamentary Secretary 1 -. 1-
Permanent Secretary 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 -
Under Secretary 2 10 2 10 2 13 5 14 2 -
Assistant Secretary 2 - 2 - 3 - - - 5
Senior Officers 3 - 3 - 4 - 10 - 11
Principals 10 25 10 25 10 32 16 31 16 32
Other Officers 12 2 12 2 9 4 20 5 24 5
Executive Officers 12 11 12 11 20 14 28 - 2
Country Dat
Openi
J 4 J 'H 4. d d 4J H
t I : I I V 1 IV3 3 I
Botswana 1968 - - - - - - - - HC 4 H
Italy 1970 - - - - - - - -
Ivory Coast June 1968 _ - - - - - E
Kenya August 1968 - - HC 3 HC
Malawi October 1970 - - - -
Nigeria 1965 HIC 2 HIC 2 HIC 2 H
Tanzania December 1964 HC 2 HC 2 HC 3 HC 4 HC
UN December 1964 O 3 O 2 0 3 0 3 0
USSR June 1965 E 3 E 3 E 4 E 5 E
Table 9
Parliamentary Secretary
Permanent Secretary
Administration Political Affairs
Under-Secretary Under-Secretary
Protocol
Africa International
Organisations,
Treaties & Aid
Permanent Secretary
I
Under Secretary
I I II I I I I
Southern OAU & East West & China, Accounts Personnel Special Information Lib
Africa & Central Africa, North Japan & Duties Docum
Middle Africa India & Africa Australia Property/ North &
East Pakistan Finance Registry South
Am
Communication E
Permanent Secretary
II
Chief of Protocol Under
I
Deputy Chief of Protocol
I I I ! I
Protocol Communications Economic Administration Finance Treaties Africa
& & Organ
Technical Middle
Assistance East
carpeting for the bathroom and toilet in the High Commissioner's resident" (Report
of the Auditor General, 1971: 21), while in Washington costs for the new
ambassador's residence included "the purchase of twenty-five lamps of various
types for K2,008, thirteen plaques for K231 and seventeen ash-trays for K102"
(Report of the Auditor General, 1972: 24).
The minister of foreign affairs has appealed for understanding over Zambia's
propensity to overspend budgets of its foreign missions. Its twenty missions are
staffed by eighty-five officers, with families, and the minister has asked for
sympathy from Parliament for "their long suffering colleagues abroad." He also
expressed his determination "to bring unconstitutional expenditure in the Ministry
and Missions abroad to an end" (Daily Parliamentary Debates, Wednesday
23 January 1974 [Number 35h] Columns 403 and 405), while asking for tolerance
of Zambia's inability to control all the costs of its overseas representation. But to
date, Zambia's diplomats have engaged in more conspicuous consumption than
most Zambian officials, and some have been unable or unwilling to meet the
demands of the leadership code for an end to entrepreneurial activity. Zambian
diplomats, like many of their professional colleagues, appear to enjoy, if not to
exploit, the privileges of the diplomatic circuit.
CONCLUSION
Headquarters
Missions abroad
NOTES
This paper was prepared while the author was Lecturer in International Politics
University of Zambia and was presented in an earlier version at the Internationa
Association Conference, Washington, D.C., in February 1975. He is most appreciat
permission granted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Zambia to undertake this rese
for the patience of senior party and ministry officials in responding to inquiries. He is
grateful for the encouragement and assistance of Douglas Anglin, Robert Molteno,
Howell.
1. The Lusaka negotiations between Frelimo and the Portuguese government in June and
September 1974, the December 1974 Zimbabwe understanding between both the four
liberation movements and the Rhodesian government, the August 1975 Pretoria agreement and
Victoria Falls talks were all arranged largely by Mark Chona, President Kaunda's special
assistant on foreign affairs. His own "shuttle diplomacy" between Lusaka and Lisbon, and
between Lusaka, Pretoria, and Salisbury have earned him the accolade of "Zambia's
Dr. Kissinger." For more comprehensive analyses of detente in southern Africa, see Anglin
(1975a) and Shaw (1976a).
2. The State House foreign policy group has been most active over southern Africa issues,
especially over the continuing problem of Rhodesia. It monitored and responded to events such
as Rhodesia's unilateral declaration of independence in late 1965 (Sklar, 1974, and Lubetsky,
1967), the closure of the Rhodesian border in early 1973, and the death of two Canadians in
the Victoria Falls gorge in mid-1973 (Shaw, 1976c).
3. This typology may be contrasted with the diagram of "institutions and roles in
intra-African policy-making" in Zartman (1966: 132). He focuses on the advisers and
lieutenants around the president and the party, whereas the concern of this research is with
other actors as well, such as other ministries, diplomatic missions, and multinational
corporations.
4. This finding is very similar to that of Kirk-Greene (1974: 288), who suggests that a staff
of eight is the average for all African states' missions abroad. Tanzania tends to have rather
more and smaller missions than most African states (Shaw, 1969: 315).
REFERENCES
Thompson, W.S. (1969) Ghana's Foreign Policy, 1957-1966: Diplomacy, Ideology and the New
State. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Tordoff, W. (ed.). (1974) Politics in Zambia. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Wood, G. (1974) "Administrative Training Zambia," pp. 211-73 in B. Schaffer (ed.),
Administrative Training and Development. New York: Praeger.
Zambia, Republic of. (1971) Second National Development Plan. Lusaka: Ministry of
Development Planning and National Guidance.
. (1972a) "Humanism and Our Foreign Policy," in Humanism Radio Commentaries
Numbers 1-42. Lusaka: Ministry of Development Planning and National Guidance.