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HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article

Front. Polit. Sci.
Sec. Peace and Democracy
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpos.2025.1399242
This article is part of the Research Topic The Recent and Contemporary Coups d'Etat in Sub-Saharan Africa: Ideology, Political Strategy, and Popular Mobilization View all articles

TWO BIRDS, ONE STONE: CAN NIGERIA HAVE THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS INTERNATIONALLY WHILE CHASING REGIONAL LEADERSHIP?

Provisionally accepted
Radu Magdin Radu Magdin *
  • Other, Bucharest, Romania

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The main aim of the paper is to analyze how Nigeria is navigating local West African ambitions while playing a more determined role in international politics. The changes in the global dynamics offer Nigeria an unexpected opportunity to choose how to play its foreign policy game onward. On the one hand, there is a long-lasting relationship with the Western nations, particularly with the United States. On the other hand, BRICS's newly regained vitality appeals to the African country as an alternative to having more ownership of the important decisions involving itself, the region and even international politics. In this context, the main question that arises is if Nigeria is on the path to choose one of the two ideological-economic blocks already mentioned or if is it able to elegantly balance between them to pursue its national and regional interests while getting the best of both worlds.

    Keywords: Nigeria, foreign policy, BRICS, West Africa, Afrocentrism

    Received: 11 Mar 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Magdin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Radu Magdin, Other, Bucharest, Romania

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