Winners and Losers in the Context of International Development Law

The idea of the game in international development law was coined out of Salomon (2012) ‘s essay. She discusses a situation where there is inequality between the losing states and the winning states. This essay takes it further by applying it to a specific section of society amongst the winning and losing states. In order to create a framework, the thesis of this essay will be understood it is essential to explain the previous and also current relationship between African Elites and Western powers. The African Elites have always been the puppets in which the West uses in controlling the peoples of Africa. This is self-evident during the colonial period. As history has showed, African countries have fallen into one label or the other for example “failed states” , “Less economically Developed countries”, “corrupt nations” etc. Nayar (2010) discusses this in his essay but looks at it from the third world view in a whole. Thus, with these labels often given to African countries, the “West” often propose solutions in which they can help the African countries escape from the label and it’s disadvantages. However, the solutions they provide are not always suitable. Sometimes they are solutions that take advantage of the African countries, sometimes they swindle the African countries, and some just ensure that African countries remain in the same position with a façade that they are there to help. Thus, the question here is how do these Western countries succeed in implementing these so called “Solutions”? The African elites are the answer. Most African elites are corrupt, as history has shown, and do not care of the welfare of their people for example Mobutu from The Congo and his actions regarding how he treated his people in relation ...

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