lecture_slides-week 6-6a historical backgroundfinal
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Lecture SlidesTRANSCRIPT
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21st Century American Foreign Policy
Dr. Bruce W. Jentleson
Unit 6 Africa:
Persis0ng Old Issues, Pressing New Ones 6A: Historical Background 6B: Current Issues in US Africa Policy
6A: Historical Background
• I. Colonialism and Independence • II. Africa in the Cold War • III. US and South Africa • IV. 1990s: Somalia, Rwanda, Other Major Conflicts • V. 4 Ps Assessment
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I. Colonialism and Independence
• Centuries of colonialism • “Dawn of a new era”
– 1957, Ghana the first sub-‐Saharan African country to gain independence
– By 1960 another 17; by 1965 another 12; by 1976 no European colonies le] in Africa
– S^ll white minority regimes as in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and South Africa
– Forma^on of the Organiza^on of African Unity (OAU) , 1963
II. Africa in the Cold War
• As in other regions, US gives precedence to Containment, and opposes many na^onalist forces, “duck test,” “ABC”
• Example: The Congo/Zaire
• Various forces figh^ng for control as becomes independent from Belgium: Patrice Lumumba, (Joseph) Mobutu Sese Seko
• Decades of US support for Mobutu dictatorship and “kleptocracy” , Zaire the largest African recipient of US foreign aid
• Some human rights pressures during Carter administra^on (1977-‐81), but fade a]er that
• 1996: Mobutu overthrown, Democra^c Republic of Congo • Almost two decades of civil war and mass killings (over 5 million
killed), “rape capital of the world” (UN)
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III. US and South Africa
• Support for Apartheid, white minority rule over black majority, gross discrimina^on and repression in all walks of life
• Opposi^on to Nelson Mandela and the African Na^onal Congress party
• US South Africa’s leading trade partner, foreign investments, bank loans
• Mid-‐1980s strengthening of the an^-‐apartheid movement in South Africa, US, globally
• 1985-‐86 An^-‐Apartheid economic sanc^ons imposed by U.S. Congress – Much support from Democrats, also some Republicans including then-‐
Chairman of the Senate Foreign Rela^ons Commijee Senator Richard Lugar (our interviewee in Lecture 1D)
– Vetoed by President Reagan, but overriden by more than the 2/3 majority required (313-‐83 House of Representa^ves, 78-‐21 Senate)
– Case of successful economic sanc^ons • 1990: Nelson Mandela released from jail, a]er almost 30 years as poli^cal
prisoner
IV. 1990s: Somalia, Rwanda, Other Major Conflicts
• End of the Cold War did not mean the end of war • Somalia:
– 1992: US and UN intervene as humanitarian mission, mass starva^on – 1993: “Black Hawk down” incident, withdrawal 1994
• Humanitarian missions, “na^on-‐building”? – Con^nued efforts by UN and African Union (AU) peace opera^ons
forces – S^ll highly unstable onshore, piracy offshore, 2011 drought – Al-‐Shabab in Somalia and terrorism, e.g., Kenya 2013
• Rwanda 1994 – Genocide – 850,000 killed, millions displaced, thousand raped, mostly Tutsis
• “The fastest, most ‘efficient’ killing spree of the 20th century,” Yet “the United States did almost nothing to try to stop it.”
• Nor did Europe, the UN, China, Russia, other African na^ons: “The genocide in Rwanda was a failure of humanity” – General Romeo Dallaire
• Historically rooted but NOT historically determined: while all the killing could not have been stopped, mass atroci^es could have.
• Plenty (too many) other cases • Darfur • Democra^c Republic of Congo (DRC) • Liberia • Sierra Leone • Cote d’Ivoire • Central African Republic the latest warning of mass atroci^es
4 Ps Assessment
• Power: Cold War global containment
• Peace: Somalia an ajempt but failed and not seen through, Rwanda did lijle
• Prosperity: some but not as much as other regions, such as La^n America
• Principles: rhetoric but few hard choices in which Principles given priority
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Cita^ons • Map of Africa: hjp://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/africa/txu-‐pclmaps-‐
oclc-‐792930639-‐africa-‐2011.jpg. Public Domain, via US government. • Map of Colonial Africa: B.W. Jentleson. American Foreign Policy: The
Dynamics of Choice in the 21st Century. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 5th edi^on, 2013. Pg. 570.
• Mandela & Joseph: Used by permission, personal photograph of Ambassador James Joseph.
• Mandela: hjp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nelson_Mandela-‐2008_(edit).jpg. Ajribu^on South Africa The Good News / www.sagoodnews.co.za, via Wikipedia Crea^ve Commons 2.0 Generic license.