ABSTRACT
The images most commonly evoked in the Western press tell us more about the Cold War perspective of journalists and global analysts than about Mozambique’s foreign policy. Since independence, Mozambican policymakers have emphasized the need to forge a strong political and economic alliance with neighboring independent countries and Southern African liberation movements. Mozambique’s ideological affinity with more militant Third World nations provided a basis for economic cooperation with such countries as Iraq, Libya, Algeria, and India. Predictably, policymakers assigned the highest priority to reinforcing relations with neighboring front-line states in order to reduce South African-Rhodesian military and economic hegemony. Mozambique has used the Organization of African Unity and the nonaligned movement as international arenas in which to generate support for Southern African liberation struggles and to articulate broader anti-imperialist positions. A long history of support, a shared ideology, and increasing military and economic links have deepened Mozambique’s ties to the socialist countries.
