Abstract

Analyse: The study demonstrates that during the period under examination, The Gambia's foreign policy sought to safeguard regime and national security, improve the national economy by mobilizing greater foreign aid, and to enhance regime and national prestige abroad. To a large extent, these objectives were achieved.

Cordial relations with the country's immediate neighbour, Senegal, secured for Banjul Dakar's goodwill and Security guarantees. Friendly ties with the West, the Middle East and Asia also enabled the Gambian Government to mobilize greater economic assistance from these regions. And espousing humanitarian causes such as the respect for human rights and good governance also won the Government greater international acclaim.

On a more general level, the study argues that, contrary to the established view in the scholarly literature, micro-states such as The Gambia have foreign policies, and that any delving beyond the initial impression would discover the same process at work in all states, regardless of their size and level of development.

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