The Analysis Of Geo-political Considerations In The U.S Foreign Policy Towards Sub–Saharan Africa

This thesis analyses the Geo-Politics in the US Foreign Policy towards Sub-Sahara Africa and it evaluates the work AFRICOM in sub Saharan Africa. This study attempts to answer this question through a study of U.S. foreign policy towards Sub-Saharan Africa by looking at the creation of AFRICOM which is the geo political tool of the United States in Africa. Africom which is a militant command pursuing its policies in a humanitarian way among the states in the sub Saharan Africa is claimed to be driven by humanitarian reasons such as democracy, sustained security and securing the African environment, strengthening United states efforts to bring peace, promoting common goals of development, playing a supportive role and helping African achieve their own security. Although presidents from Woodrow Wilson to Jimmy Carter to George W. Bush and now to Obama have indicated that the United States has a moral obligation to promote democracy, democracy promotion became a central element of U.S. foreign policy after 1990. The geo politics foreign policy however since the establishment of the Africom has been led by waging a “war on terror” and Africa is considered to be the breeding place for the terrorists such as the Boko Haram and Al Shabaab who have intensified their military attacks on the sub Saharan continent. The Africom is strategizing by training African military armies to help United States wage a war on Terror that has been characterized on various missions in sub Saharan Africa for example in Somalia as a Peace keeping initiative.Scholars as well as policy makers, however, have suggested that the United States has frequently sacrificed the promotion of democracy and human rights in favor of other goals. In recent years, although promoting democracy and good governance have been described as leading U.S. foreign policy objectives in Africa, they may have been overshadowed by two other goals: the global war on terror and energy security. Sub Saharan countries have attracted United States attention as it tries achieving energy security. The United States in 2008 imported about sixteen percent of its oil from the Gulf of Guinea, and this figure is likely to increase to 25 percent by 2015. As U.S. oil interests in the region increase, some fear that the United States is likely to forgo its support for democracy in favor of energy security. The burgeoning market capacity of other states more so China on the sub Saharan region has been a significant factor in vi changing the United States foreign policy towards Sub Saharan Africa. Therefore, the current United states foreign policy towards sub Saharan Africa has led to questions like what factors are leading to the United states foreign policy towards sub Saharan Africa and how is the United states achieving the foreign policy in sub Saharan Africa.This thesis is divided into five chapters of which chapter 1 analyses the background to the study, research questions, core question, primary question and the main argument of the thesis as to what is driving the US foreign policy towards the sub Saharan Africa. Under this chapter is the theoretical frame work of the thesis by Stephen Walt, whose theory of alliance explains the balance of power leading to the Balance of threat where by countries come together to form an alliance to eliminate a common threat and in this case Sub Saharan Africa and United states are suffering from terrorism as a common threat. That is the reason why the United States geo political foreign policy is driven by the elimination of terrorism on the global context. The alliance theory is characterized by giving of foreign Aid to such nations such those of sub Saharan Africa to act as a leverage. The section also describes the structure of the thesis from the first section to the last section which is chapter five. This section further describes the significance and methods used in research. This chapter also discusses the literature review which discusses different scholarly works about Africom and its geo political foreign policy towards the sub Saharan states.The second chapter discusses the US foreign policy towards sub Saharan Africa. The section describes the economic, geo strategic and security interests. This chapter further explains the changes in the African policy from George Bush to Obama analyzing whether there have been changes from the bush administration to the Obama administration in the way the African foreign policy has been administered since the establishment of the Africom. These changes include the change from democracy to increasing terrorism in the sub Saharan African region where the ammunitions given to the soldiers meant to fight the peace missions especially in Somalia end up selling the weapons to the rebels and these have increased terrorist activities in the region. The other changes from the Bush to Obama regime is the burgeoning influence of China in the Sub-Saharan Africa region where China through the Balance of Threat(Bo T) theory of Sir Stephen Walt has also been gaining alias through construction of infrastructure in the region with no conditions which has attracted more allies hence increasing its influence on the continent.The next chapter that’s chapter three brings out the United States geo political tool that is the AFRICOM by examining its creation and origin. This section also examines the United States Africa Command(AFRICOM) as a Unified Combatant Command of the United States’ Department of Defense that is responsible for military operations with 53 African nations covering an area of responsibility among all the sub-Saharan states except Egypt which will remain under United States Central Command(USCENTCOM), a US Combatant Command established to take charge of the Middle East.The tools of Africom include democracy through humanitarian missions in the sub Saharan region like Nigeria and Somalia. The section further explains the security and economic interests of United States towards the Sub Saharan African region. This chapter also explains the aims and objectives of the Africom as a geo political tool. This section also brings out the measures employed by AFRICOM to spread the US foreign policy towards African countries.Chapter four analyses the effects of AFRICOM on United States and sub Saharan states. This chapter explains the worsening image caused by pursuit of geo political interests. It’s also explains how AFRICOM has created fear for that African regional controllers like African Union may lose their positions. On the side of African nations, the section describes how the African states have lost their economic plight at the expense of Multinational corporations as tools of the foreign policy to sub Saharan Africa by United States. Chapter four also analyses how United States uses dictators by militarizing their regimes and terrorists and this has worsened the human rights in sub Saharan Africa.The last section is chapter five which examines the conclusions from the United States Geo Political foreign policy towards sub Saharan Africa. This section gives the observations and final remarks made from the United States’ foreign policy and how it has resulted into the militarization of African states. It gives conclusions on the dictator regimes that have been supported through giving of military support and ammunitions to such nations which have worsened the human rights of the local people in the sub Saharan region through increased militarization of sub-Sahara region.After analysis of the conclusions then recommendations are set for better future policy towards the sub Saharan African region if the people of Sub Sahara Africa are to adopt the United States foreign policy. The recommendations are the solutions experienced by the United States foreign policy in overcoming weak policy and also helping the African states to find ways of overcoming bad policy of the United States geo political foreign policy as represented by Africom.Lastly the Bibliography is expressed as the last the last section of the thesis.