On US interests in Africa
Regional-USA, Politics, 2/28/2006

Sub-Saharan Africa must be a primary component of US foreign policy because it will continue to grow in importance to US economic and strategic interests as the decade progresses, a panel of policy specialists stressed February 22.

The panel discussion, organized by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and held at its Washington headquarters, spotlighted CFR's recently published independent task force report, More Than Humanitarianism: A Strategic US Approach Toward Africa.

The report's two project directors, CFR's Princeton Lyman and J. Stephen Morrison of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), discussed many of the report's themes and recommendations.

Morrison mentioned US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent policy address on "transformational diplomacy," with its emphasis on reallocating a heavily weighted US diplomatic presence in Western and Northern Europe to less-developed areas of the world, such as Africa. He said this reallocation would fill a gap in terms of US security in the region and would increase US public diplomacy engagement.

"To have the secretary say, 'Let's step back and take a new look at the way we do foreign aid and how we engage in countries and regions,' is refreshing, because in Africa there are a lot of resources flowing and new ways to coordinate our aid and trade programs," he added.

Lyman complimented Rice "on this new phase of engagement" with the developing world. "What you have," he said, "is a big switch in American foreign policy, away from Russia and Europe to the areas where our interests are heavily engaged in a new way."

Africa always has been a bipartisan issue in the United States, unlike Iraq, Lyman said. "If you look at all the recent initiatives on Africa -- MCC (Millennium Challenge Corporation), AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act] or PEPFAR [President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) -- you have strong bipartisan support. That's a plus."

Responding to a question from the audience on conflict resolution in Africa, Lyman said US involvement needs to be more flexible so that "we can deal with more than one crisis at a time."

Lyman also recognized "a tremendous growth in African leadership in conflict resolution -- the Africans who have been in the forefront in helping to negotiate an end to war in the Congo, as they are in the lead in trying to bring a political solution in Darfur." African leadership in the political process has been critical "in whatever progress has been made" in these and other conflicts, he said.

In regard to supplying foreign aid to energy-rich areas of Africa, Morrison said, "We are calling for a high-level forum that would begin to get leadership committed to norms of accountability and transparency. We need to find the reformers and support them."

He called for "greater flexibility" and "the kind of geopolitical shift that puts a much higher priority on this region within the White House and within the upper reaches of the State Department."

Commenting on the progress of democratization on the continent, Lyman called for a doubling of resources in the region to help Africans demand accountability from their governments.

China was mentioned as a very real competitor with the United States because of its aggressive economic programs in sub-Saharan Africa, but Lyman was critical of the country for seeming to ignore human rights and corruption in favor of "business for business' sake."

Morrison said that Sudan has been an example "where China and the US have collided" in terms of blocking effective sanctions on the Khartoum government in response to armed militias' violence in Darfur. Similarly, "with [President Robert] Mugabe in Zimbabwe."

"We believe that in the broader context, a serious and strategic dialogue with China can begin to bring those issues forward," he said.

"They want to be seen as a major 'player' in the world, and to be a major 'player' you have to carry a certain degree of responsibility," Lyman said.

With regard to the proper role for the US private sector in Africa's development, Lyman said that even though American business largely has been involved in the extractive industries, "we should encourage involvement on a grander scale" and prod African states to come together to invest jointly in the United States.

He added that the Bush administration's Millennium Challenge Corporation is playing a positive role in the development of democracy in Africa.

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