Foreign Policy of The Barack Obama Administration - Africa

Africa

While Africa is a continent the countries of Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, and Western Sahara are not considered to be part of sub-Sahara Africa and therefore are not associated with Africa for the foreign policy purposes of the United States but are instead considered to be part of the Near East (commonly referred to as the Middle East) when talking about United States foreign policy. Depending on the source these countries may or may not be included when talking about African foreign policy.

During the 2008 campaign, Obama outlined his priorities for developing an Africa policy including taking action to stop "what U.S. officials have termed genocide in Darfur, fighting poverty, and expanding prosperity." Some analysts believed that Obama's appointment of Susan Rice who is a former assistant secretary of state for African affairs, as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was a sign that his administration would prioritize the continent.

Then Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton, in a January 13 hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, described the "foreign policy objectives of the Obama administration in Africa" as being "rooted in security, political, economic and humanitarian interests." She went on to say that the administration priorities would include "combating al-Qaida's efforts to seek safe havens in failed states in the Horn of Africa; helping African nations to conserve their natural resources and reap fair benefits from them; stopping war in Congo; ending autocracy in Zimbabwe and human devastation in Darfur."

Darfur, Eastern Congo, Ghana and Zimbabwe have all played a significant role in the United States Africa policy. Some foreign policy analysts believed that conflicts in "Sudan, Somalia, and eastern Congo" would "eclipse any other policy plans."

President Obama visited Cairo, Egypt, where he addressed the "Muslim world" on June 4 and followed this trip with his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa, as President, on July 11, 2009 where he addressed Ghana's Parliament.

He was followed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who took a seven nation trip to Africa in August including stops in Angola, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria and South Africa. Some foreign policy analysts have made the claim that this is "the earliest in any U.S. administration that both the president and the secretary of state have visited Africa."