Journal of Countries Studies

Journal of Countries Studies

Intervention, influence, and resources: Foreign actors and strategic convergence in the Angolan civil war

Document Type : Original

Authors
Shalini Singh
Nagalaxmi M Raman
Amity Institute of International Studies, Amity University, Uttar Pradesh, India.
10.22059/jcountst.2026.413606.1511
Abstract
Existing literature on the Angolan Civil War (1975–1991) often obliterates the brief yet significant moment of strategic convergence between the communist and capitalist blocs; most notably when Cuba protected the U.S. company Gulf Oil’s facilities in Cabinda during the early 1980s. While the war is commonly situated within a binary contest between the MPLA’s (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) socialist alignment and U.S., backed anti-communist forces of UNITA (The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola), these framing obscures a critical episode in which Cuba militarily protected Gulf Oil’s Cabinda operations, an American corporate asset whose revenues simultaneously financed the MPLA. This convergence raises a broader question on foreign interventions in civil wars produce dependency that override ideological boundaries when strategic resources are at stake. To address this situation, the paper uses Andre Gundre Frank’s idea of Neo-Marxist dependency theory to explain how powerful external actors shape the economic and political structures of weaker states. The Angolan case illustrates that interventions justified in normative terms might push the conflict-affected states into asymmetrical relationships where strategic resources and political leverage become the price of foreign aid.
Keywords
Angolan Civil War
foreign policy
neo-dependency theory
normative intervention
U.S
Subjects

Scope: Angola

حوزة موضوعی: آنگولا

 

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Journal of Countries Studies
Volume 5, Issue 2
in English with Persian Abstract
2027
Pages 243-262

  • Receive Date 02 May 2026
  • Revise Date 02 June 2026
  • Accept Date 03 June 2026
  • First Publish Date 23 June 2026
  • Publish Date 23 August 2027