While America’s future policy on Africa remains unclear, Trump’s re-election underscores the need for a coordinated and mutual European-African policy on the big strategic issues, says Will Brown, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).
While during Donald Trump’s first presidency, the US policy was defined by a series of the president’s gaffs and confused foreign policy decisions, his recent re-election is a wake-up call to European governments that building a strong relationship with the world’s fastest-growing continent is more vital than ever, Brown argues in his new commentary. Therefore, European and African officials should prepare for Trump to play a wild card regarding security. It is simply not clear what ‘America First’ will mean regarding boots on the ground in Africa and military assistance to the continent.
While during his first administration, Trump made fighting Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria a mainstay of his foreign policy, with the centre of the jihadist conflict having shifted to West Africa’s Sahel, Trump’s second administration might decide that the security crises on the continent are too bothersome for even the limited attention they get now. Here, Brown lays out a couple of general predictions:
Firstly, the US will almost certainly see its Africa policy through more of a Chinese lens. Secondly, the name of the game will be transactionalism and bilateralism, not development and multilateralism, which may also mean that America’s landmark African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is doomed. “Neither Europe nor Africa can rely on a rational, level-headed Washington anymore. But if the right tone is set, it could help usher in a renewed spirit of collaboration between the two continents,” Brown says.