Abstract

This article interrogated in theoretical cum descriptive fashion the linkage s between neo-liberal globalization the state the arena of politics and conflicts using sub-Sahara Africa as a research backdrop Drawing from secondary data sourced mainly from textbooks and journals and leaning on dependency theoretical platform it found out that neo- liberal globalization has affected states in the global system differentially While the developed states of the north had developed various strategies to deal with the enigma and had even made huge success of it the dependent post-colonial states in Africa have been at the mercies of this technologically driven post- cold war phenomenon Merciless it argues that globalization has dented the integrity of these states in manner that made them to lose legitimacy in the eyes of citizens under their confines The outcome of such state of affairs was the relocation of legitimacy from them to the sub-state movements which in most cases have now become the new sites of conflicts in the region The article recommended two action areas for reversing the trends First at the national level the state the epicentre of the socio-economic space needs to be reconstituted It is expected that a genuinuely democratic nation-states could serve as building blocks for continental integration Second sub-Sahara African states must move the integration process beyond rhetoric