Cultural Forces in World Politics - by Ali A Mazrui (Paperback)

About the Book

Professor Mazrui, Reith Lecturer and presenter of BBC1's series The Africans, makes us reconsider the realities of power in world politics.

Book Synopsis

Ali Mazrui argues that the emphasis in world politics continues to be on arms, on resources and on strategic calculations and that the importance of culture has been grossly underestimated. Professor Mazrui's own mind is a cultural cross-roads; he can give Islamic insights to Western audiences about 'The Satanic Verses'; he relates the Beijing Spring to the Palestinian Intifada; he compares the effects of Zionism and Apartheid; he puts together Muhammad, Marx and market forces; and he tells the Americans that their attitude to the Third World is a dialogue of the deaf. ALI A. MAZRUI is Director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at the State University of New York at Binghamton and Senior Scholar in African Studies at Cornell University North America: Heinemann; Kenya: EAEP

Review Quotes

... presents an alternative view of the world that does not see Europe or America as the only players in world affairs. ---Rosalinde Yarde "THE TIMES HIGHER EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT"

Himself a cultural mongrel (he is an Afro-Asiatic westerner) Mazrui is, perhaps, better placed than any of us to use Afro-Islamic and Judeo-western prisms to discern the cultural forces that are at work in world politics. ---William R. Ochieng' "THE WEEKLY REVIEW, Nairobi"

Mazrui delights in dualism and dichotomy, in pairs and parallels, and the paradoxes thereof. Bringing the south's point of view to the north, the east's to the west, and in return showing how the north and west's standpoint and behaviour have been culturally conditioned may begin to loosen hidebound beliefs. A book that makes one think... ---Bob Marshall "THE BOOKSELLER"

This is an erudite, encyclopedic and provocative essay. ---Andre J. Pierre "FOREIGN AFFAIRS"