| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
THE OUTLINE of the DRC's contemporary foreign policy began to take shape with the end of the civil war (1998-2003) in the midst of a political and military crisis. To rehabilitate the national image and regain credibility on the international scene was not easy. The country had a large external debt (approximately $14 billion), lost its voting rights in the African Union (because of unpaid membership dues), and was poorly represented and passive in international organizations. During the transition period (2003-2005), the leadership's efforts were mainly to restore the devastated economy and lay the foundations of a democratic state. But instability on the eastern borders of the DRC, where disparate forces still fought each other, hampered those efforts.
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