Africa Seen as Vital US Foreign Policy Issue
Washington, January 28, 2004 --Once considered a foreign policy afterthought, Africa is emerging as a vital U.S. concern, Stephen Morrison, Executive Director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told IRP Fellows today.
Morrison cited several reasons as contributors to this shift in policy: concern about the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, the threat of terrorism and the growing importance of the African oil industry.
Morrison said last year's announcement by President Bush committing $15 billion towards HIV/AIDS treatment in 14 countries in Africa and Latin America was an important new step for US engagement in Africa. He pointed to Bush's acknowledgment that infectious disease could be a contributor to future instability and war as a key factor in the policy shift. Seventy percent of the 40 million people infected by the HIV virus in the world today live in Africa. In at least four countries in Southern Africa as much as thirty percent of the population is infected.
Widespread political instability and weak governments and institutions in Africa make it a vulnerable target for terrorists, Morrison said. Since the al-Qaeda attacks in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and in Kenya in 2002, and the September 11, 2001 attack in the United States, the U.S. has begun working with governments across the continent - from Kenya to Nigeria, Somalia to South Africa - to combat terrorism.
The U.S. is also involving itself diplomatically to settle longstanding disputes in Africa. Morrison said he expects a negotiated peace settlement in Sudan by March of this year, calling it the Bush Administration's singular diplomatic success in Africa. But when it comes to military involvement, Morrison pointed out that since 18 U.S. Marines were killed in Somalia in 1993 Washington has been "skittish" about using force on the continent. When asked about U.S. involvement in the war in Liberia, he described the internal debate within the administration this past July as the U.S. "walking up to the fence" and ultimately "stepping back," deciding that Liberia was not worth the risk of full American commitment.
The growth of the oil industry is another major factor in Africa's emergence as a player in U.S. foreign policy, Morrison said, noting the U.S. gets 13 to 14 percent of its oil from Africa, mostly from Central and West Africa where proven oil reserves have doubled in the past decade. While Africa accounts for only one percent of trade on the global market, 80 to 90 percent of that is due to its energy exports. Historically, oil producers have not been afraid of difficult situations, Morrison said. But many shareholders are worried about egregious corruption and a propensity for political breakdown in Africa.
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