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2018 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

2. Africa and the United States: A History of Malign Neglect

Author : Adekeye Adebajo

Published in: Africa and the World

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Chapter 2 argues that the United States policy towards Africa over the last six decades has reflected a history of “malign neglect”. During the Cold War, Washington pursued its global strategy of “anti-communism” in Africa, resulting in a proliferation of weapons to local proxies and millions of African deaths. After the end of the Cold War, despite rhetorical support for democracy and economic development, US policy under the three presidencies of Bill Clinton (1993–2000), George W. Bush (2001–2008), and Barack Obama (2009–2016) continued to undermine these goals through a securitisation of policy and continued support for autocratic regimes.

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previous chapter Introduction: Inspirations and Hesitations in Africa’s Relations with External Actors

next chapter Africa and Russia: The Pursuit of Strengthened Relations in the Post-Cold War Era

The historical definition of “red peril” is a political or military threat that emanated from communist organisations.

See Adekeye Adebajo, “Africa and America in an Age of Terror”, Journal of Asian and African Studies 38(2–3) (2003), pp. 175–191. See also Salih Booker, “US Foreign Policy and National Interests in Africa”, South African Journal of International Affairs 8(1) (2001), pp. 1–14; Michael Clough, Free at Last? US Policy Toward Africa and the End of the Cold War (New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1992); Jeffrey Herbst, US Economic Policy Toward Africa (New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1992); Peter Schraeder, “Removing the Shackles? US Foreign Policy Toward Africa After the End of the Cold War”, in Edmond J. Keller and Donald Rothchild (eds), Africa in the New International Order: Rethinking State Sovereignty and Regional Security (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1996).

The sections on Bill Clinton and George W. Bush build on Adekeye Adebajo, “An Axis of Evil? China, the United States, and France in Africa”, in Adekeye Adebajo, The Curse of Berlin: Africa After the Cold War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, first published in 2010), pp. 163–91.

On Clinton’s Africa policy, see Jendayi E. Frazer, “The United States”, in Mwesiga Baregu and Chris Landsberg (eds), From Cape to Congo: Southern Africa’s Evolving Security Challenges (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2003), pp. 275–99; Gilbert M. Khadiagala, “The United States and Africa: Beyond the Clinton Administration”, SAIS Review 21(1) (2001), pp. 259–273; Chris Landsberg, “The United States and Africa: Malign Neglect”, in David M. Malone and Yuen Foong Khong (eds), Unilateralism and US Foreign Policy: International Perspectives (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2003); Marina Ottaway, Africa’s New Leaders: Democracy or State Reconstruction? (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1999); John Stremlau, “Ending Africa’s Wars”, Foreign Affairs (July 2000), pp. 117–32.

See Hussein Adam, “Somalia: A Terrible Beauty Being Born?”, in I. William Zartman (ed.), Collapsed States: The Disintegration and Restoration of Legitimate Authority (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1995), pp. 69–78; Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Unvanquished: A US-UN Saga (London: Tauris, 1999); Walter Clarke and Jeffrey Herbst (eds), Learning from Somalia: The Lessons of Armed Humanitarian Intervention (Boulder: Westview, 1997); John L. Hirsch and Robert B. Oakley, Somalia and Operation Restore Hope: Reflections on Peacemaking and Peacekeeping (Washington, D.C.: US Institute of Peace, 1995); Terrence Lyons and Ahmed I. Samatar, Somalia: State Collapse, Multilateral Intervention, and Strategies for Political Reconstruction (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1995); Mohamed Sahnoun, Somalia: The Missed Opportunities (Washington, D.C.: US Institute of Peace, 1994).

See Turid Laegreid, “UN peacekeeping in Rwanda”, in Howard Adelman and Astri Suhrke (eds), The Path of a Genocide: The Rwanda Crisis from Uganda to Zaire (New Brunswick and London: Transaction Publishers, 1999), pp. 231–51; Mahmood Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism and Genocide in Rwanda (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2001); Linda Melvern, A People Betrayed: The Role of the West in Rwanda’s Genocide (London: Zed Books, 2000); Gérard Prunier, The Rwandan Crisis: History of a Genocide (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995); Astri Suhrke, “UN Peacekeeping in Rwanda”, in Gunnar Sorbo and Peter Vale (eds), Out of Conflict: From War to Peace in Africa (Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet,1997), pp. 97–113.

See Clough, Free at Last?; and Herbst, US Economic Policy Toward Africa.

Anver Versi, “At Last, a Win-Win Formula for African Business”, African Business, March 2003, pp. 12–15.

See for example Randall Robinson, The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks (New York: Plume, 2000), pp. 182–7.

See for example Adebajo, “Africa and America in an Age of Terror”; Mwesiga Baregu, “Terrorism and Counter-terrorism: Dialogue or Confrontation?”, in Adekeye Adebajo and Helen Scanlon (eds), A Dialogue of the Deaf: Essays on Africa and the United Nations (Johannesburg: Jacana, 2006), pp. 261–74; Princeton N. Lyman, “The War on Terrorism in Africa”, in John W. Harbeson and Donald Rothchild (eds), Africa in World Politics: Reforming Political Order, 4th edition (Boulder: Westview, 2009), pp. 276–304.

See Economist Intelligence Unit, “Country Report: Morocco”, February 2003, p. 15.

See Aboubakr Jamai, “Morocco’s Choice: Openness or Terror?”, New York Times, 31 May 2003, p. A25.

Elaine Sciolino, “At a Traumatic Moment, Morocco’s King Is Mute”, New York Times, 27 May 2003, p. A3.

Quoted in Frank Bruni, “Deep US-Europe Split Casts Long Shadow on Bush Tour”, New York Times, 15 June 2001, p. A6.

Raymond W. Copson, The United States in Africa (London: Zed, 2007), pp. 34–6.

Henning Melber, “Global Trade Regimes and Multi-Polarity: The US and Chinese Scramble for African Resources and Markets”, in Roger Southall and Henning Melber (eds), A New Scramble for Africa? Imperialism, Investment, and Development (Scottsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2009), pp. 65–7.

Copson, The United States in Africa, p. 28.

See Copson, The United States in Africa, pp. 17–41.

See More Than Humanitarianism: A Strategic US Approach Toward Africa, Report of an Independent Task Force, Council on Foreign Relations, New York, December 2005, www.cfr.org

Copson, The United States in Africa, pp. 42–65.

This section on Barack Obama builds on Adekeye Adebajo, “US Policy Toward Africa: The Rise and Fall of Obamamania”, Great Decisions, January 2015.

The preceding quotes are from “The World Rejoices”, New African, December 2008, pp. 22–3.

Office of the Press Secretary, The White House, Washington, D.C., “Fact Sheet: The New Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa”, 14 June 2012, https://obamawghitehouse.archives.gov

Barack Obama’s speech to the Ghanaian parliament, 11 July 2009.

Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo, Egypt, 4 June 2009.

Fouad Ajami, “Demise Of The Dictators”, Newsweek, 6 February 2011, www.newsweek.com

The New York Times, “Reining in Egypt’s Military Aid”, 4 October 2014, www.nytimes.com

I participated at the November 2009 ASA conference in New Orleans.

Steve McDonald, “Have US Priorities in Africa Changed? Do Security Concerns Trump Others?”, Harvard International Review 36(3) (Spring 2015), pp. 18–22.

See Nick Turse, Tomorrow’s Battlefield: US Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa (Johannesburg: Afro-Middle East Centre, 2015). See also Nicolas Van De Walle, “Obama and Africa; Lots of Hope, Not Much Change”, Foreign Affairs (September/October 2015), pp. 54–61.

See for example Jennifer G. Cooke and Richard Downie, “Rethinking Engagement In Fragile States”, report of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies Africa Programme, Washington, D.C. (July 2015), p. 9.

See the Economist Intelligence Unit, Country Reports, “Mali”, in 2012.

Lanre Ola and Ahmed Kingimi, “Boko Haram Attacks Nigerian Army Base”, Reuters, 8 January 2017, www.af.reuters.com

Thomas L. Friedman, “Obama On The World”, The New York Times, 8 August 2014.

Cited in Stephen R. Weissman, “In Syria, Unlearned Lessons From Libya”, In These Times, 19 April 2013, http://sites.tufts.edu/reinventingpeace/2013/04/21/weismen-in-syria-unlearned-lessons-from-libya/

Quoted in Louis Charbonneau, “UN Ends Mandate For NATO Operations in Libya”, Reuters, 27 October 2011, www.reuters.com

See New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa, https://new-alliance.org

See for example Liz Ford, “US Criticised Over Increased Private Sector Investment in Africa”, The Guardian (London), 7 August 2014; and Cécile Barbière, “European Parliament Slams G7 Food Project in Africa”, The Guardian (London), 8 June 2016, both in www.theguardian.com

See documents relating to the Africa Education Initiative, www.usaid.gov

The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, Washington, D.C., “Fact Sheet: The President’s Young African Leaders Initiative” (29 June 2013).

The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, Washington, D.C., “Fact Sheet: US-Africa Cooperation on Global Health” (4 August 2014).

“Obama’s Tribute to Mandela: The Full Speech”, Mail and Guardian (South Africa) (10 December 2013), www.mg.co.za

Toluse Olorunnipa and Tope Alake, “Obama’s Africa Power Plan Falls Short, Leaving Continent in The Dark”, Bloomberg, 21 September 2016, www.bloomberg.com

This section has drawn from Juliet Eilperin, “Obama Praises US-Africa Summit as An ‘Extraordinary Event’”, The Washington Post, 6 August 2014, www.washingtonpost.com; Mark Landler and Peter Baker, “As Meeting With African Leaders Winds Down, Policy Issues Take The Stage”, The New York Times, 6 August 2014, www.nytimes.com; Mwangi S. Kimenyi, “US-Africa Leaders Summit: Seizing the Opportunity To Reposition Africa-US Relations”, The Brookings Institution (23 January 2014).

Quoted in Peter Baker, “Obama Deplores Africa’s Perpetual Potentates”, New York Times, 29 July 2015.

Lexington, “One Year of the One”, The Economist, 29 October 2009, http://www.economist.com; Micah Zenko, “How Barack Obama Has Tried To Open Up The One-Sided Drone War”, Financial Times, 23 May 2013, http://www.ft.com; and David Carr, “Debating Drones, In the Open”, The New York Times, 10 February 2013, http://www.nytimes.com

Title: Africa and the United States: A History of Malign Neglect
Author: Adekeye Adebajo
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Africa and the World
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-62589-8

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-62590-4

Copyright Year: 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62590-4_2