Partnership of the USA and African Countries in the Fight Against Terrorism under the Administrations of J.W. Bush and Barack Obama

Abstract

The article examines the place of African countries in the US counter-terrorism strategy under the administrations of G.W. Bush and B. Obama. It is alleged that at the turn of the 2010-s the significance of this trend has increased due to the intensification of Islamists in the countries of West Africa and the new round of the civil war in Somalia. This led to an intensification of the military presence and tightened cooperation with the allies, on which the Americans also sought to entrust the main struggle against the radicals. There are several directions of counterterrorism policy: the provision of technical assistance to partner countries for the development of special forces; the building of subregional mechanisms for coordinating counter-terrorism actions; intensification of cooperation in the financial sphere; carrying out separate military operations, mainly by UAV forces. In the end, itwas the African direction that turned out to be the most successful example of Obama’s “leading from the behind” strategy. Despite the fact that under the influence of the Arab Spring and the rise of the ISIS in the Middle East in 2011-2014, there was an escalation of violence in the region, in general, the main goals of combating Islamist terrorism by the end of 2016 were achieved by the USA. In Somalia, Nigeria and Libya, Americans relied on the local forces concerned, restricting participation by coordinating allies, providing intelligence and striking individual blows. The French intervention in Mali in 2013 enabled the Europeans to shift the main burden of fighting local Islamists. In addition, Egypt, receiving abundant military assistance from the United States, did not allow the expansion of the ISIS’s zone of operations in the Sinai Peninsula, but it was not possible to fully cope with the small local branch due to the instability of relations with local tribes that remain outside the control of the central government.