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January 2006
| Author: | Princeton N. Lyman, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies |
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This Council-sponsored Independent Task Force Report argues that Africa is becoming steadily more central to the United States and to the rest of the world in ways that transcend humanitarian interests. The module supports the report's comprehensive policy recomendations with multimedia resources that explore in greater detail the most pressing issues facing Africa today.
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Academic Modules—featuring teaching notes by the authors of CFR publications—are designed to assist educators in creating or supplementing a course syllabus. The modules are customized packages built around a primary CFR text, such as a book or report, and include teaching notes; additional readings; video, audio, and transcripts of CFR meetings; Foreign Affairs articles; and other online resources. Use of these modules is free of charge. They may be used in part or in their entirety.
January 2006
Task Force Report No. 56
This Council-sponsored Independent Task Force finds that Africa is of growing strategic importance to the United States in addition to being an important humanitarian concern. In a world where economic opportunity, security threats, disease, and even support for democracy transcend borders, a policy based on humanitarian concerns alone serves neither U.S. interests, nor Africa’s. Furthermore, the Task Force finds that critical humanitarian interests would be better served by a more comprehensive U.S. approach toward Africa; nor is it valid to treat Africa more as an object of charity than a diverse continent with partners the United States can work with to advance shared objectives.
by Princeton N. Lyman
Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow and Director for Africa Policy Studies
Council on Foreign Relations
U.S. Policy Toward Africa is designed for either a separate course or integrated into broader courses such as:
· Contemporary African issues;
· Conflict resolution and peacekeeping;
· Global issues: energy, health, poverty;
· American foreign policy.
Discussion Questions
1. What drives U.S. policy toward Africa?
2. What are the new “drivers” of American interest?
3. How significant are the most recent American policy initiatives?
4. How have recent administrations responded to Africa?
5. What should the U.S. approach be to the following:
Debate
1. The United States should double its aid to Africa as promised by President Bush.
2. More aid will not answer Africa’s problems of poor governance, corruption, and lack of support for entrepreneurship and trade.
3. The United States should be prepared to back up Africa’s peacekeeping efforts in Darfur and elsewhere on the continent, including the use of American troops, in order to prevent genocide or other cases of mass violations of human rights.
4. The United States should not become involved in Africa’s civil wars more than helping Africa and the United Nations undertake peacekeeping and conflict resolution.
5. The United States should take a strong stand on democracy in Africa, supporting the positive trends and the role of civil society, and placing sanctions on backsliding regimes like Zimbabwe.
6. Democracy in Africa will continue to be uneven and subject to elections that are neither free nor fair, the continuation of “big man” politics, and corrupt use of office. The United States should focus on improved governance but not expect much from democracy.
Specific Courses on U.S.–Africa Relations
Possible topics include:
· Development aid; the prospects for recent new U.S. initiatives
· U.S. positions in the trade negotiations under the Doha round
· Conflict resolution and peacekeeping; the role of the UN, Global Peace Operations Initiative, American aid
· Major health issues: HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB, perhaps avian flu
· The role of the African diaspora
· The role of religion: its growing importance, the tensions between Muslims and Christian, the implications for democracy, stability, and terrorism, the role of American religious communities
· China’s rise in Africa: competition, cooperation or conflict?
· Africa’s rising production of oil and gas and the implications of billions of dollars flowing into the producing states.
· How serious is the threat of terrorism in Africa?
Additional Reading
Our Common Interest, Report of the Commission for Africa, London, March 2005
Rising U.S. Stakes in Africa: Seven Proposal to Strengthen U.S.-Africa Policy: A Report of the African Policy Advisory Panel, Washington DC, CSIS, May 2004.
A Strategic U.S.Approach to Governance and Security in the Gulf of Guinea, by J. Stephen Morrison and David L. Goldwyn, CSIS, July 1, 2005
The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, Jeffrey Sachs, New York, Penguin Press, 2005
Battling Terrorism in the Horn of Africa, Robert Rotberg, editor, Washington DC,
Brookings Institution Press, 2005
Islamism and its Enemies in the Horn of Africa, Alex de Waal, editor, Bloomington, Indiana, Indiana University Press, 2004
Intervening in Africa: Superpower Peacemaking in a Troubled Continent, Herman Cohen, London, MacMillan Press, 2000
AfricaPolicy in the Clinton Years, J. Stephen Morrison and Jennifer G. Cooke, editors, Washington DC, CSIS, 2001
Angry Wind: Through Muslim Black Africa by Truck, Bus, Boat and Camel, Jeffrey Taylor, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 2005
Partner to History: The United States Role in South Africa’s Transition to Democracy, Princeton N. Lyman, Washington DC, USIP, 2001.
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Council Special Report No. 5
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