How Does The United States Counter Terrorism In Africa:Action Modes And Reasons Behind

Since born in 1980 s, Africa terrorist organizations has gone through three waves of development and did tremendous damage to African states and the world. The United States has been countering terrorism in Africa since 2001, which can be divided into three periods, policy formulation, policy enhancement and positive actions. When facing different terrorist organizations and different stages of the same terrorist organization, the U.S. takes different coping tactics. This paper tries to explore the following questions. Firstly, what are the main tactics adopted by the U.S. in countering terrorism in Africa. Secondly, are there any laws in the action modes made up by these tactics and what are the major reasons behind. Thirdly, what's the influence of the U.S. countering terrorism in Africa to Chinese interest and how should China respond?There are four kinds of coping tactics for the U.S. to strike terrorist organizations, including leaving it alone, taking initiatives, offering military assistance and military striking, which are influenced by domestic conditions, terrorist organizations' capability, attitudes of states and intergovernmental organizations in Africa and outside powers. These elements can be reduced to cost expectations and interest relativity. Cost Expectations refers to the cost evaluated by the decision-makers before taking actions. Interest relativity means the importance degree of African states troubled by terrorist organizations to the U.S. We propose two hypotheses here. Other things being equal, the lower the cost expectations are, the greater the likelihood of the U.S. to take the high-level tactics is.(H1) Other things being equal, the higher the interest relativity is, the greater the likelihood of the U.S. to take the high-level choices is.(H2) Then we construct the actions mode of the U.S. countering terrorism in Africa. In accordance with different degrees of cost expectations and interest relativity, the U.S. will resort to four modes, including active mode, prudent mode, passive mode and neglecting mode. We examine the hypotheses with three cases, the Lord's Resistance Army(LRA), AlShabaab and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb(AQIM) by the process tracing method. These cases are in accordance with active mode, prudent mode and passive mode, which indicates that the action modes of the U.S. to strike terrorist organizations are affected by cost expectations and interest relativity indeed.Africa terrorist organizations undermined Chinese interest in Africa in many aspects. The countering-terrorism of the U.S. is like a double-edged sword to China which provides with both benefits and threats. Chinese fundamental attitudes towards African terrorism include condemning the violence of terrorist organizations, supporting the countering-terrorism endeavor of African states and organizations, participating in this process limitedly according to its national conditions. There are many drawbacks of Chinese participation, including underemphasizing the importance of countering-terrorism, lack of resource and investment, narrow participating scope and limited coping tactics. Therefore, reforms are needed in the following respects, rethinking the principle of non-interference, increasing the aid to African states, strengthening international cooperation on countering-terrorism in Africa, cooperating and coordinating with the U.S. on countering-terrorism in Africa.