ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Angola's idiosyncratic and often dysfunctional foreign policy. It highlights the effects of the ideological choices made by the new regime upon gaining independence and suggests how they have affected foreign policy. Notwithstanding the constraints imposed by the party, the president-by virtue of his positions as both party chairman and head of government-had important opportunities to set the tone for the country's foreign policy while ensuring that its main goals and objectives were fulfilled through careful implementation. The foreign policy-making process in Angola was affected by the transition to multi-party politics in the early 1990s. The governing party is able to influence the foreign policy-making process through its structural links with the government. The chapter argues that Angola's inability to take full advantage of these momentous changes to achieve its major foreign policy goals highlights important flaws in the foreign policy-making process. It shows that, changing external environments have not facilitated military solutions to Angola's domestic problems.
