Bush’s visit to Africa:  Postscript diplomacy

 By Dr.Maurice GOUNTIN

 (THIS IS AN ARTICLE WRITTEN IN MARCH 2008, BUT STILL READABLE FOR THE VALUE OF ITS CONTENT)

Africa has never been a US foreign diplomacy priority so while President George W Bush’s recent visit to the continent raised the attention of the international media the sudden interest in Africa aroused only suspicion of the international community, particularly in the African states that have for so long been neglected. To the people in the nations visited, the trip seems like an afterthought.

From 2001, the Bush administration focused on the fight against terrorism and the hunt for oil and the clear proof of this is the US attacks on Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq. The US has also been taking note of the rise of China and its interest in Africa as a threat to American world super power status. When the Sino-Africa forum was held in Beijing in November, 2006, it made the old European powers in Africa nervous, but it also raised the level of US interest in Africa.

It was just three months later that the US Department of Defense announced the creation of a new US Africa Command infrastructure (AFRICOM) to “coordinate all US military and security interests throughout the continent”. AFRICOM is due to come into being by September and the speed at which it is being realised and the military-driven engagement with Africa reflects the Bush administration’s desperation to control the increasingly strategic natural resources on the African continent, especially oil, gas, and uranium.

AFRICOM is also seen as an attempt to counter the growing influence of China in the resources-rich Gulf of Guinea and secure the strategic resources for the US. Nigeria is already the fifth largest exporter of oil to the United States and Liberia is interested in the AFRICOM initiative but all US attempts to convince other African nations to get on board have only met with opposition. This is because there has been little sustained US attention to the region.

Mr Bush’s first visit to Africa in July, 2003, took him to Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria. It was part of a campaign to gain these countries’ support for the invasion of Iraq, and was recognition of their influence on their respective sub-regions. But his recent visit to Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Liberia and Ghana doesn’t show any particular strategic interest in the nations visited. These countries are the least important in the US diplomatic agenda, are poor in resources and don’t have any particular relations with China. But they do share common characteristics in terms of relative stability and certain democratic norms.

Since the US invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration has not been seen positively among Africans so to rescue his country’s and his personal reputation on the continent, Mr Bush decided to visit its less strategic countries. It was an effort to show that apart from the war against terrorism and the hunt for oil, the US also cared about democracy, AIDS, and poverty eradication in the poorest countries in the world. But it was not until almost the end of his days in the White House that he sought to do this.

If terrorism and oil are the main themes of the Bush presidency, his recent visit to Africa qualifies as a postscript at the end of a letter. Poor countries in Africa have almost been forgotten in the US diplomatic agenda, but through this “postscript diplomacy”, Mr Bush may just have saved his image among the continent’s neglected countries.

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