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This is a deeply informed, insightful, at times brilliant book, but it is also somewhat frustrating. The Curse of Berlin makes a contribution to the study of African politics and international relations, but the contradictions of the book are already evident from the title. Most obviously, it seeks to assess the impacts and legacies of the Congress of Berlin on Africa, but only in the post-Cold War period. Why the book is structured in this way is not explained.
The book is divided into three parts: the Quest for Security, the Quest for Hegemony and the Quest for Unity. This is a highly original and insightful structure, although it could be argued that many of the actors involved are not necessarily consistently seeking any of...