Citation:
Date Presented:
February 5Abstract:
In the year 2003, Zimbabwe decided to implement a "Look East" policy (LEP). This LEP shifted Zimbabwe's economic and political focus from Western Europe and the United States to China and the Far East. In the words of Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, "We have turned East, where the sun rises, and given our back to the West, where the sun sets." Most sources accredit this Look East shift to Western sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe in 2002. However, my thesis argues that this shift would have occurred in 2003 regardless of the Western sanctions. The alternative factors that are often overlooked are Zimbabwe's withdrawal from the Congo War in 2002, the rising inflation that had been occurring since the beginning of the century, and the disputed presidential elections in 2002. The simultaneous and harmonic convergence of these varying chaotic elements created a crisis of power for Robert Mugabe and his party ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front), to which they decided to Looking East would be the best solution to solve the crisis. While I am not arguing that the sanctions had no effect on the decision to implement a LEP, I do believe that there were other factors that would have caused a Look East shift regardless of the sanctions.