Angola is a highly influential country in Southern and Central Africa. Following the 2002 peace agreement between government forces, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), and the opposition, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), it has emerged as an important African leader. Understanding its foreign and defence policies requires, first and foremost, an understanding of the influence that domestic factors, particularly the MPLA’s continued hold on power, have on the formulation of these policies and the objectives set. The aim of this article is to analyse this relationship, using the end of the civil war in 2002 and Dos Santos’ departure from power in 2017 as decisive moments of internal political change. It is hoped to demonstrate how Angola’s international integration is largely guided by internal interests, particularly the MPLA’s desire to remain in power.