This paper seeks to offer an explanation of the behaviour of states in global politics. It argues that a key lesson we can learn from international history is that the behaviour of states in global politics is principally determined by the context in which they behave or act; context determines whether states behave in line with the tenets of realism, liberalism, constructivism, English School, critical theories, or a combination of two or more theories. In order to concretise the discussion, the paper does a historical analysis of the international history of Africa which proves that context is the principal determinant of the behaviour of states in global politics; this is not only true of African international history, but also true of world history. Then the paper concludes that the sooner we learn this lesson, the better we will be able to create contexts that will engender desirable state behaviour!
Keywords: Africa, Context, Global Politics, International History, State, Theory
