Neutralism In Ghana

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Despite the fact that successive regimes in Ghana have pursued foreign policies guided by the traditional foreign policy principles of non-alignment and support for International Organizations, I am of the view that despite this fact, and the fact that Kwame Nkrumah as the first president of Ghana and being a founding father of the NAM, Ghana’s foreign policy in the past has been characterized by alignment either to the East, West, or aligned to the prospect of Pan-Africanism. Nkrumah’s idea of Pan-Africanism itself is a form of alignment. Despite Nkrumah been a ardent proponent of non-alignment, he perhaps aligned Ghana to the Eastern Socialist bloc praising and seeking support from Socialist regimes such as the Soviet Union, China, Cuba and …show more content…

As Nkrumah famously put it “we face neither east nor west, we face forward”. Ghana has manage to balance it relations with her neighbors and all international organization it belongs to by practicing what Nkrumah calls “positive neutralism”. Ghana therefore relate to those who want to relate and goes to where she will get help and support for her national development agenda. This balancing act of non-alignment and positive neutralism has resulted in Ghana receiving substantial foreign aids from the US, UK, Canada, China, Japan, the EU, and many others countries concurrently throughout the years. With China as a rising superpower, Ghana’s NAM policy has allowed her to take advantage of the opportunities that China’s rise represent to the development world. China therefore fits in Ghana’s balancing act of non-alignment policy that allow her to act neutral while benefitting from close relations with all countries even if these countries are …show more content…

The constitutions has also made it possible for various non-state actors such Civil Society groups, pressure groups, political parties among others. The extent to which these state actors and non-state actors efficiently perform the role of effecting the foreign policy of the state is however a matter of concern. I am of the view that the legislative body falls short of acting as a watchdog of government foreign policy. Since Ghana runs a presidential system, the Cabinet made up of the powerful ministries such as the foreign affairs ministry, the defense ministry, trade ministry among others as a matter of fact act in unison with the president hence in my view does not influence the direction of foreign

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