Foreign policy is a decision directed by a government to the governments of other states. It is a policy that is meant to influence other states in the international political system. Although foreign policy is an extension of domestic policy, it isformulated to affect other countries.

Nationalism in the African context may be defined as the struggles by Africans to free themselves from foreign rule, and to determine, after independence has been won, their own future. In the period before the Second World War, nationalism was aimed at resolving certain grievances of the elites.