The Bureaucratic Tax on Africa Policy

In 1958, at France’s request, the United States delayed diplomatically recognizing the newly independent nation of Guinea. counterparts that doing so would have a “catastrophic moral reaction” in France—an assessment the U.S. State Department’s powerful Bureau of European Affairs heartedly supported.

And so, it took several months for Washington to establish diplomatic ties and almost a year to assign an ambassador to Conakry, damaging the U.S. relationship with one of Africa’s most important postindependence countries. This episode reverberated for years and cleared the path for foreign adversaries to swiftly plant a flag in West Africa at the expense of the United States. This pattern has continued to repeat itself. The United States has regularly subordinated its interests in Africa to advance objectives in another regions. Initially, it was in service of European priorities, but it gradually expanded to include Middle East and Indo-Pacific issues. By the time I became special assistant to President Joe Biden and senior director for African affairs at the National Security Council, the trade-offs between Africa and the rest of the world had become constant and compounding. Each act of geographic deference functioned as a tax, removing more resources and reducing additional decision-making space. The cumulative effect was a U.S.-Africa policy stripped, trade-off by trade-off, of its vitality and effectiveness. In 1958, at France’s request, the United States delayed diplomatically recognizing the newly independent nation of Guinea. counterparts that doing so would have a “catastrophic moral reaction” in France—an assessment the U.S. State Department’s powerful Bureau of European Affairs heartedly supported.

Key points

• And so, it took several months for Washington to establish diplomatic ties and almost a year to assign an ambassador to Conakry, damaging the U.S.
• relationship with one of Africa’s most important postindependence countries.
• This episode reverberated for years and cleared the path for foreign adversaries to swiftly plant a flag in West Africa at the expense of the United States.
• This pattern has continued to repeat itself.
• The United States has regularly subordinated its interests in Africa to advance objectives in another regions.