U.S. Africa Relations: the Modest Foundations of Obama's Four-Pillar Platform

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama is the methadone of the US’s international relations rapid rehab programme. Driven by fear, intoxicated with the gluttony of hard power and addicted to military security solutions for the past eight years, Obama is now beginning to wean the world’s hyperpower off its toxic dependency. Indeed, Obama’s Africa policy speech delivered in Ghana at the weekend illustrated as much about the US’s own foreign policy renaissance as it did about its desired relationship with the continent of 54 countries and almost a billion people. The most import policy departure contained in the speech was the replacement of the instrumentalist view of Africa, in which the continent was evaluated by the US in relation to its importance to and role in the “war on terror”, by one that sees the development of Africa as intrinsic to the security and development of the global community of nations. To wit, Africa is finally being recognised as key to the achievement of globally shared ideals such as food sufficiency, sustainable energy, human security and the management and mitigation of global warming. The four pillars of the Obama administration’s new engagement with the continent are: the buttressing of democracy and good governance, smart development assistance, strengthening public health, and support for conflict reduction and resolution. It remains to be seen whether an integrated and coherent set of US Africa policies will emerge from and be properly funded by Washington following the speech.