FROM NEGLECT TO ‘VIRTUAL ENGAGEMENT’: THE UNITED STATES AND ITS NEW PARADIGM FOR AFRICA

Abstract

The promotion of a new American relationship with Africa is one of the Clinton Administration's most visible initiatives in the foreign policy sphere. From the White House summit on Africa to the highly publicized presidential tour of the continent, the US government has sought to demonstrate its commitment to reversing the pattern of neglect that characterized relations in the post-colonial period. The new interest in Africa expressed by Washington is complemented by the concurrent launching of a domestic initiative that targets the development of a 'new constituency for Africa' aimed at linking local American interest groups with foreign policy concerns. Taken together, these initiatives purport to lay the foundation for an enduring partnership with commercial and political depth that will ensure that African issues become a perennial feature of the American political landscape. However, in spite of this overt commitment to activism, there is much in the formation of the new relationship that is suggestive of the continued limits of American interests in the continent. THIS ARTICLE WILL INVESTIGATE the changing dynamics of the United States' policy towards Africa in the post-Cold War period as seen, in the main, from a South African perspective. It will do so by providing an overview of the post-Cold War construction of American foreign policy; an examination of the particulars of the Clinton Administration's foreign policy initiatives towards Africa and their relationship to domestic concerns; and, in conclusion, an analysis of the content and implications of this refilrbished relationship. Forging a nezv foreign policy tozoards Africa The historic relationship between the United States and Africa is one characterized in the main by indifference and neglect, punctuated by flurries of interest and action.l The absence of colonial ties during the Dr Chris Alden is a Lecturer in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics. From 1990 to 1999 he taught at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. The author would like to chank an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments. 1. Peter Schraeder, United States Foreign Policy Toward Africa: Incrementalism, crisis and change (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994), pp. 5-8; Sanford Ungar, 'US policy toward Africa', in Robert Art and Seyom Brown (eds), US Foreign Policy: The search for a new role (Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1993), pp. 383-4.