The U.S. Policy Towards Africa In Obama Administration

Sub-Saharan Africa’s rapid economic growth, domestic political improvement and greater participations in regional organizations after the end of the Cold War have brought along a widespread concern from all around the world. Although the previous US administration’s global strategies have marginalized Africa, regarding the gradual increase of international influence, the US government’s African policy is becoming increasingly important in its global strategies.To illustrate, the "African Growth and Opportunity Act, AGOA", proposed by the Clinton administration, as well as the "Millennium Challenge Account", raised by the Bush administration have served as important parts of US foreign policy, These two predecessors of Obama administration have one common feature as they have all experienced a transition from the contempt to attention towards Africa.The Obama administration’s global strategy has the dual inheritance and shrinkage characteristics of its Africa policy. On one hand, the Obama administration’s Africa policy possesses continuation of the Bush era to focus on military security, oil resources, while on the other hand, during Obama’s second term, he visited Africa three times, planned and successfully held the first US-Africa Summit, launched the African Youth Leadership Program, as well as the project Power Africa, transforming from unilateralism to multilateralism, from direct participation to cooperation with countries and international organizations. The Obama administration has shown its tightening policy.Obama held the tradition of US in exporting Democracy and Human Rights, focuses on issues of AIDS prevention, food security, infrastructure construction and governance of African countries by economic assistance.This paper makes judgment of the character and impacts of US Africa policy, as well as prediction of the future Africa policy of the US government by analyzing various official data in dimensions of security, economy and foreign aid of two time periods with government reports as first-hand materials.