Military Review English Edition January-February 2014 | Page 52

Militarization of
U.S. Foreign Policy in Africa:
Strategic Gain or Backlash?
Kofi Nsia-Pepra, Ph.D., LLM

M

ANY THINK AMERICAN foreign policy objectives reflect America’s values and
ideals. The United States globally promotes human rights, democracy, international
justice, rule of law, and free trade. Achieving these liberal ends would require liberal policies. Ironically, U.S. foreign policymakers, informed by neorealist motivations, employ realist
mechanisms, especially military force, to pursue its putative liberal goals, undermining the attainment of those liberal ends. U.S. policies toward Africa historically followed a “hands off”
approach until the onset of the Cold War. U.S. anti-communists stratagem led to its involvement in Cold War African security issues, evidenced in the Angolan war and the militarization
of some client states and factions. In the post-Cold War era, America had limited political,
humanitarian, security, and economic interests in Africa. Expectedly, its interest in African
security issues dimmed with minimal military involvement in Africa. Eastern Europe and Asia
gained primacy in America’s foreign policy, demoting African security issues to the periphery
of its foreign policy. In 1995, the Defense Department asserted that American security and
economic interests in Africa were limited: “At present, we have no permanent or significant
military presence anywhere in Africa: We have no bases; we station no combat forces; and we
homeport no ships. . . .Ultimately we see very little traditional strategic interest in Africa.”1

Dr. Kofi Nsia-Pepra is an assistant professor of political science at Ohio Northern University. He holds a master of
laws degree from Essex University UK and a Ph.D. in political science from Wayne State University. He served as a
flight lieutenant in the Ghana Air Force, was with the United Nations Assisted Mission in Rwanda as a military human rights observer, and served as Ghana’s Air Force detachment commander with ECOMOG in Sierra Leone. His
article “Robust Peacekeeping? Panacea for Human rights Violations,” Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies, Vol.18,
No. 2, Fall 2012, examines the conviction that robust peacekeeping—a strong and forceful peacekeeping force—works
better than UN traditional peacekeeping in reducing human rights violation, specifically, civilian killing.
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January-February 2014 MILITARY REVIEW