About this book The George W. Bush administration maintains that in sub-Saharan Africa it is making major new contributions in fighting disease, promoting de- velopment, fostering democracy, and promoting peace. Yet, despite the rhetoric, is the Bush admin- istration really working to bring about a fairer and more just Africa? Though aid has increased and a major AIDS initiative has been launched, Copson argues that US policy in Africa falls well short of meeting reasonable standards of fairness or justice. Foreign aid is losing its focus on development as political priorities come to the fore, US barriers to African exports remain substantial, and the AIDS program is in danger of flagging due to unilateral- ism and ideological controversy. An increasingly military approach to fighting the ‘Global War on Terror’ in Africa and securing energy imports carries serious risks for the region. Copson con- cludes by assessing the prospects of a more equit- able policy emerging in future administrations. About the author Raymond W. Copson is an independent scholar specializing in African affairs and US relations with Africa. He teaches at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced Inter- national Studies and at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Copson is editor of the Online Africa Policy Forum at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Until 2005, he worked at the Congressional Research Service of the US Library of Congress. He has previously lectured in international relations at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, and the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. raymond w. copson The United States in Africa Bush policy and beyond Zed Books london | new york David Philip cape town in association with International African Institute Royal African Society Social Science Research Council The United States in Africa: Bush policy and beyond was first published in association with the International African Institute, the Royal African Society and the Social Science Research Council in 2007 by in Southern Africa: David Philip (an imprint of New Africa Books) 99 Garfield Road, Claremont 7700, South Africa in the rest of the world: Zed Books Ltd, 7 Cynthia Street, London n1 9jf, uk and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, ny 10010, usa www.zedbooks.co.uk www.iaionthe.net www.royalafricansociety.org www.ssrc.org Copyright © Raymond W. Copson, 2007 The right of Raymond W. Copson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. Cover designed by Andrew Corbett Set in Arnhem and Futura Bold by Ewan Smith, London index: <[email protected]> Printed and bound in Malta by Gutenberg Press Ltd Distributed in the usa exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St Martin’s Press, llc, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, ny 10010. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of Zed Books Ltd. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library us cip data are available from the Library of Congress isbn 978 1 84277 914 9 hb isbn 978 1 84277 915 6 pb Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 Aid, trade, and development 17 3 AIDS policy 42 4 Democracy and human rights 66 5 Conflict and peacekeeping 86 6 Threats to security 110 7 Beyond the Bush administration 126 Notes | 146 Index | 163 1 | Introduction Does the United States have a policy toward sub-Saharan Africa that is fair and just? What could be done to change policy in ways that would make it fairer and more just? These are the underlying questions that have inspired this short volume. Many Bush administration1 critics might find the first ques- tion absurd on its face. Their heartfelt opposition to US policies on Iraq, the Israel–Palestine dispute, global warming, the Inter- national Criminal Court, and other issues inevitably creates a predisposition to doubt that the administration could or would pursue a just and fair policy in Africa. Key features of Africa policy, such as the administration’s long delay in mounting a meaningful response to the crisis in Darfur, US aid to warlords in Somalia, and the seeming US endorsement of the oppressive Obiang regime in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea only serve to affirm their doubts. But the issue is not so simple. Under President Bush, US economic assistance to sub-Saharan Africa has reached record levels; a large program has been launched to fight the African AIDS pandemic; and through a strategic commitment of diplomatic resources, the administration made a major contribu- tion to ending the civil war in southern Sudan. This volume will acknowledge these positive features of the Bush administration’s Africa policy, which have been inspired in part by the President’s response to his base in the evangelical Christian community, and in part by political pressures com- ing from other groups that have long sought a better future for Africa. At the same time, these steps toward a fairer and more just Africa policy have been undercut by the strong element of political realism that has always affected US policy toward the 1 e sub-Saharan region, by the influence of neoconservatives and n O other ideologues, and by economic self-interest. According to the White House, the intention of the Bush ad- ministration is to ‘work with others for an African continent that lives in liberty, peace, and growing prosperity,’ but in fact, policy is falling far short of this vision – both in terms of working with others and in terms of advancing what the White House says is a ‘core value’ of the United States: ‘preserving human dignity.’2 In recent years, policy has come to be more and more influenced by two security interests, the Global War on Terror (GWOT) and the protection of oil supplies, that are pushing the United States away from a fairer and more just relationship with Africa. These security interests are real, but are not so great or compelling in the sub-Saharan region that they should be allowed to overwhelm the better aspects of policy. A particular danger is that the pur- suit of GWOT in the Islamic parts of Africa, combined with the unpopularity among Muslims of US policies in the Middle East, could provoke regional conflict and instability – as well as lasting alienation from the United States. Fairness and justice in Africa policy A concern with justice and fairness in a book about foreign policy might seem misplaced to some readers, particularly those raised in the realist school of analysis, discussed below. It is the author’s conviction, however, that justice and fairness should always be major considerations in policy toward any region, on both moral and practical grounds. Whether one accepts the moral argument – that the United States ought to pursue justice and fairness in its relations with all countries – is a matter of personal belief. The fact that the United States has lost influence in the world under the Bush administration because it has been per- ceived as unfair and unjust in its foreign policy should, however, be of practical concern to all. If policymakers lose sight of the 2 importance for the United States of being regarded as a fair and just actor on the international stage, they are not likely to be able to protect US security interests in Africa or elsewhere. The moral argument for a fair and just policy in sub-Saharan Africa is particularly compelling because the United States has incurred moral obligations toward the region over a troubling history of more than three centuries. Although it may be that the European colonizers bear a heavier responsibility for the problems Africa faces today, the truth is that the United States must share a considerable portion of the blame. Slaves brought by force from Africa, and their descendants who continued to live in slavery until the American Civil War (1861–65), were central to the economic development of the American South and the country as a whole. The injustices meted out to America’s Africa- descended population have never been fully expiated, nor even ended. In Africa, the slave trade brought only turmoil, conflict, and impoverishment. The importation of slaves to the United States became illegal from 1808, but many were smuggled in on the eve of the Civil War as southern extremists agitated for legalizing the trade once again. The participation of Americans in the international slave trade was also made illegal and punish- able by death in the early nineteenth century, but these laws were poorly enforced. American captains and crews were enthusiastic participants in the export of many thousands from West Africa to Cuba and Brazil through much of the nineteenth century, and no one was hanged for the crime until 1862, after President Lincoln had taken office.3 In that same century, Liberia was launched by well-to-do Americans, some motivated by humanitarian consider- ations but many others by a concern to cleanse the United States of free blacks regarded as unassimilable and a threat to planta- In t r tion society in the American South. In subsequent decades, this o d u American offshoot was sadly neglected; and in the late twentieth c t io century, when Liberia had fallen into its time of troubles, US n 3