State Emissary, November 2017. Issue 1 2017 Edition | Page 17

SM | POLITICS
amid a pullback in the African Union peacekeeping
mission there.
In keeping with the globalized and ever-connected
world in which we live, none of these
threats—including the myriad others that will
certainly crop up during Trump's presidency—exist
in isolation from one another, nor do they respect
national borders. As a result, the U.S. will be forced to
engage on the terror threats emanating from Africa
Additionally, the U.S. must respond to other sources
of instability in Africa. The world's newest nation,
South Sudan, is being torn asunder by violent political
infighting; the conflict has already internally
displaced more than 1.6 million people and created 1.2
million South Sudanese refugees, threatening to
overwhelm the region's ability to cope. Part of the
response to these conflicts must be
humanitarian—the U.S. provides billions of dollars of
life-saving assistance to vulnerable populations across
the continent—but careful diplomacy is also needed
to navigate the political conflicts that presage
violence.
2. Secure Africa's fragile economic progress
Africa has some of the fastest-growing economies on
earth, and it is also home to some of the world's
greatest reserves of natural resources, including oil,
copper, iron, and gold, to say nothing of the rapidly
growing, increasingly young African populations who
will become the backbone of tomorrow's global
workforce. (By 2050, nearly 25 percent of the global
workforce will be African and two-thirds will live in
the continent's cities.)
The continent is also home to cutting-edge
technology—African entrepreneurs are pioneering
innovations in medicine, banking, tourism, and
transportation. Dedicated tech hubs in cities like
Kenyan capital Nairobi and Nigeria's economic hub
Lagos are incubators for young Africans to design and
execute their ideas
Some African countries have been hard-hit by falling
commodity prices—the value of oil and other precious
minerals has plummeted, sending Africa's
commodity-dependent economies into chaos. Nigeria,
despite being Africa's emerging economic giant, is
heavily-reliant on oil revenues, and it has been
especially affected; the country fell into recession in
August as the value of the naira plummeted
Supporting Africa's economic progress—to promote
both diversification and regional integration—is an
opportunity for American businesses to invest in and
trade with the continent. The potential of nearly all
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