US foreign policy towards Africa : a case study of Uganda under the NRM administration, 1986 - 2007

Abstract

The US has had foreign relations with sovereign African states for over 40 years. However this can be traced to the Wilsonian times when President Woodrow Wilson delivered before the Versailles Conference in 1918 the Famous Fourteen Points. Among the fourteen points one advocated for self-determination of peoples and territories under foreign occupation. This was the first major step in US foreign policy towards Africa. The end of World War Two dramatically changed the power structure of world politics as US unparallel capabilities were further strengthened. The war greatly destroyed the economies of Western Europe, and the Capitalist world was under US leadership. While the Capitalist countries were weakened, in Eastern Europe the Soviet Union emerged as the leader of the Communist world. The ideological rivalry that ensued between these power block leaders was known as the Cold War. Well as these two great powers never came to war against each other, the cold war became hot in Africa as it became the battlefield for proxy wars whose effects have outlived the Cold War. The cold war influenced US-Africa relations. Its policy at the time primarily sought to Contain Soviet influence in the continent. Although spreading democratic values, promotion of human rights, promoting free trade were among US policy objectives, priority was given to containing Soviet expansionism in the continent. Accordingly, policy was narrowly defined in geo-political terms. The 1990s ushered in a unipolar world with US as the only superpower. The US has used its political, military, and economic superiority to pursue its interests in the world. The US administration whether under the Republicans or Democrats has a consistence regarding goals to pursue in foreign relations. Issues focused on in US - Africa relations not only benefit Africa, but the US as well. As far as US - Africa relations are concerned; power is tilted in favor of the US. The US has used its unmatched capabilities to shape the pattern of interaction with the states it interacts with. Africa's budding importance as a source of untapped natural resources like oil has attracted China, which is heavily investing in the region. The threat of losing Africa from the Western orbit to China's influence looms large. This is likely to turn Africa into a geo-economic real estate and once more a return to cold war modal of politics, this time two big nations struggling for Africa's resources, whose fortunes or misfortunes will have to be exploited by Africa's leadership to better the continent.