Brief: President-elect Obama’s Foreign Policy Stance on Africa

Contents:i. Official Obama-Biden Campaign Foreign Policy Stance on Africaii. Dr. Witney Schneidman, advisor to Africa on Senator Barak Obama’s

presidential campaign, on Sen. Obama’s “Three Objectives for Africa”iii. Dr. J. Peter Pham, World Defense Review, The Africa Policy of an Obama

Adminstrationiv. Obama media quotes on Africav. Editorial: Kumsa Aba Gerba US Policy on the Horn of Africa under Obama

Administration, Sudan Tribune

Obama’s Africa staff: Dr. Witney Schneidman, Senior advisor to Africa on Senator Barak Obama’s

presidential campaign Susan Rice, Obama nomination for UN Ambassador, former State Department

Africa official, former Assistant Secretary of State for Africa under Clinton adminstration

i.

Obama-Biden Campaign Foreign Policy Stance

On Africa

Obama's Record: As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Barack Obama has fought to focus America's attention on the challenges facing Africa – stopping the genocide in Darfur, passing legislation to promote stability in the Congo and to bring a war criminal to justice in Liberia, mobilizing international pressure for a just government in Zimbabwe, fighting corruption in Kenya, demanding honesty on HIV/AIDS in South Africa, developing a coherent strategy for stabilizing Somalia, and travelling across the continent raising awareness for these critical issues. He has also increased America's focus on the long term challenges of education, poverty reduction, disease, strengthening democratic institutions and spurring sustainable economic development in Africa.

Stop the Genocide in Darfur: As president, Obama will take immediate steps to end the genocide in Darfur by increasing pressure on the Sudanese and pressure the government to halt the killing and stop impeding the deployment of a robust international force. He and Joe Biden will hold the government in Khartoum accountable for abiding by its commitments under the Comprehensive Peace Accord that ended the 30 year conflict between the north and south. Obama worked with Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) to pass the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act in 2006.

Fight Poverty: Obama and Joe Biden will double our annual investment in foreign assistance from $25 billion in 2008 to $50 billion by the end of his first term and make the Millennium Development Goals, which aim to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015, America's goals. They will fully fund debt cancellation for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries in order to provide sustainable debt relief and invest at least $50 billion by 2013 for the global fight against HIV/AIDS, including our fair share of the Global Fund.

Expand Prosperity: Obama and Biden will expand prosperity by establishing an Add Value to Agriculture Initiative, creating a fund that will extend seed capital and technical assistance to small and medium enterprises, and reforming the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. They will launch the Global Energy and Environment Initiative to ensure African countries have access to low carbon energy technology and can profitably participate in the new global carbon market so as to ensure solid economic development even while the world dramatically reduces its greenhouse gas emissions. They will also strengthen the African Growth and Opportunity Act to ensure that African producers can access the U.S. market and will encourage more American companies to invest on the continent.

ii. Dr. Witney Schneidman, advisor to Africa on Senator Barak Obama’s presidential campaign:http://allafrica.com/stories/200809291346.html?page=2

Africa: Obama's Three Objectives for Continent

Witney W. Schneidman - 29 September 2008

Washington, DC — Witney W. Schneidman, an adviser on Africa to the campaign to elect Senator Barack Obama as President of the United States, sets out Obama's fundamental policy objectives for Africa.

Barack Obama understands Africa, and understands its importance to the United States. Today, in this new century, he understands that to strengthen our common security, we must invest in our common humanity and, in this way, restore American leadership in the world.

As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he has engaged on many African issues. He has worked to end genocide in Darfur, to pass legislation to promote stability and the holding of elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to bring a war criminal to justice in Liberia and to develop a coherent strategy for stabilizing Somalia.

In 2006, Senator Obama visited Kenya where he spoke truth to power to the leadership about the corrosive impact of corruption, in South Africa he demanded honesty from the government about HIV/Aids, and he met with American military commanders in Djibouti at the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa to discuss the threat of terrorism to U.S. interests and to the interests of our partners in the region.

Obama also visited refugee camps in Chad, where he heard first-hand about the experiences of Sudanese women who had been forced from their homes and had their families torn apart, and worse, by Khartoum's genocidal policies.

Over the last 18 months, Barack Obama has worked with the Kenyan leadership to help resolve the post-election crisis in that country, and he has called for an increase on pressure on Robert Mugabe for stealing elections and sponsoring violence against his own people.

Barack Obama continues to speak out against Khartoum's ongoing war of genocide in Darfur, and has called on Ethiopia and Eritrea to walk back from the brink of war.

The Diaspora

There is another very important quality about Barack Obama that informs his perspective on Africa, and that is the fact that he is a product of the African diaspora, the son of a Kenyan father, whose grandmother still lives in Kenya.

In fact, this campaign is making a strong effort to reach out to African Americans across the United States country and to those first, second and third generation Africans who have become American citizens to encourage them to be part of the effort that will elect Barack Obama president of the United States.

It is a powerful reality that more Africans have come to the United States since 1970 than came during the middle passage. The more than two million African immigrants in the U.S. can be an important source of support in strengthening relations with Africa.

Through a more active dialogue with the various African diaspora communities and organizations, the U.S. will find itself in a better position to develop its agenda and accomplish its objectives on Africa.

For those who may ask why, there are several reasons for this interest in the African diaspora community.

Africans are the most educated immigrant group in the country. African-born men and women have higher median earnings than all foreign-born

men and women in the U.S. Remittances from Africans in the diaspora are on the rise, estimated to be in

excess of $4 to 6 billion per year. Nigerians, as one example, remit more than $3 billion per year.

The Obama campaign is witnessing an unprecedented surge of support and excitement from African Americans as well as diaspora communities, and this support will be critical to Barack Obama's success in November.

Most immediately, the diaspora community has started to organize itself into groups such as Ethiopians for Obama, Eritreans for Obama, the African Immigrant Movement for Obama and the African Diaspora for Obama. In fact, one thing that Ethiopians and Eritreans clearly agree on is that they want Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States.

Most immediately, we want those 10,000 Ethiopian-Americans in Virginia to help turn that state blue on November 4th, we want all Nigerian-Americans living in Cleveland, Akron and elsewhere in Ohio to turn out the vote in their communities, we want the Somali-American community in Minneapolis to help win Minnesota, and we want African diaspora communities all across the country to come forward and exercise their rights as Americans. Even if individuals are not eligible to vote, they can still hand out leaflets, make phone calls and canvass their neighborhoods.

In the short-term, all those of African descent have the potential to be a key game changer in this election.

Moreover, the experience of Barack Obama underscores the values that many Africans and Americans share and the ties that bind us together.

The experience of Barack Obama has also raised extraordinary expectations in Africa. We need to be realistic about these expectations, especially given the financial pressures in the U.S., and remember that whatever the U.S. might try to do in Africa will be in support of the actions taken by our partners in Africa and the goals that they set for themselves and goals that we set together.

Obama's Africa Agenda

Barack Obama will pursue three fundamental objectives on the continent.

One is to accelerate Africa's integration into the global economy. A second is to enhance the peace and security of African states. And a third is to strengthen relationships with those governments, institutions and

civil society organizations committed to deepening democracy, accountability and reducing poverty in Africa.

Conflict Resolution

A priority for Barack Obama is to end the genocide in Darfur by increasing pressure on the government to halt the killing and stop impeding the deployment of the United Nations peacekeeping force. He holds Khartoum accountable for abiding by its commitments under the Comprehensive Peace Accord that ended the 30-year conflict between the north and South.

In Somalia, Obama sees a need to recalibrate the U.S. approach. For the last several years, our efforts at state-building, humanitarian relief and counter-terrorism have worked at cross purposes; we need to develop an approach so that they work at common purpose.

In the eastern Congo, there is a need to strongly support the UN military force, MONUC. We also have to transform the "tripartite plus" process, which brings together senior officials from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda, from a talk-shop into one that imposes verifiable accountability on each participant for progress and security.

In the Niger Delta, we should become more engaged not only in maritime security but in working with the Nigerian government, the European Union, the African Union and other stake holders to stabilize the region.

In Zimbabwe, the recently agreed-upon power sharing arrangements need to evolve quickly from a Mugabe-controlled government to a government that reflects the March 29 election that the Movement for Democratic Change won. Most immediately, Robert Mugabe needs to allow NGOs unhindered access to the four to five million people who need essential food and medicine supplies.

Africom, the U.S. military command for Africa, should also realize its potential, in cooperation with other U.S. agencies and regional partners, to promote peace, security, and stability on the continent.

An Obama agenda will create a Shared Security Partnership Program to build the infrastructure to deliver effective counter-terrorism training, and to create a strong foundation for coordinated action against al Qaeda and its affiliates in Africa and elsewhere.

The Shared Security Partnership Program will provide assistance with information sharing, training, operations, border security, anti-corruption programs, technology and the targeting of terrorist financing.

To accelerate Africa's integration into the global economy, and to expand prosperity on the continent, Obama would establish an Add Value to Agriculture Initiative (AVTA) that will spur research and innovation aimed at partnering with land grant institutions, private philanthropies and businesses to promote higher yield seeds, better irrigation methods and affordable and safe fertilizers.

Such an initiative will also address issues related to food security in order to alleviate high food costs in various African countries.

Barack Obama will strengthen the African Growth and Opportunity Act to ensure that African producers can access the U.S. market and will encourage more American companies to invest in Africa. He will also work with the Overseas Private Investment Corporation to develop lending facilities to small and medium businesses, so that those companies under $5 million can become $10 and $20 million companies, creating new jobs, sustainable incomes and partners for American companies.

He will help to enhance the prosperity beginning to reach Africa. The World Bank estimates Africa's middle class will grow fourfold in the next 20 years, from its current levels of 12 million people in countries such as South Africa, Zambia, Nigeria, Kenya and others. Barack Obama will work to accelerate this process.

China's rapidly expanding influence on the continent holds promise for Africa, especially in the area of infrastructure development. Its growing presence is also generating concerns around saddling new debts on African governments, environmental degradation and worker safety on the part of Chinese extractive companies, and eroding the market share of African producers on the continent and globally.

Barack Obama will engage the Chinese to establish the rules of the road and to ensure that we are working at common purpose to enhance economic development on the continent.

However, it will be important that African governments are part of this effort and part of this dialogue; the days of external powers on their own deciding what is best for Africa needs to come to an end, once and for all.

Deepening Democracy, Ending Poverty

When it comes to engaging with our African partners to deepen democracy, enhance accountability and reduce poverty, Barack Obama will work with Congress to put more resources on the table.

But let's give credit where it is due. The President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), with 1.7 million people in Africa on anti-retrovirals, has been an extremely important initiative, as has the Bush administration's program to eradicate malaria and address neglected tropical diseases.

It is often said that this administration's legacy in Africa will revolve around these programs and the tripling in development assistance from $2 billion in 2000 to $6 billion today, and rightly so.

Nevertheless, the picture is incomplete if we stop there. The reality is that the bulk of this increase is due to increased spending on HIV/AIDS, humanitarian assistance and debt

relief. In fact, development assistance to the poorest countries in Africa has decreased by half in this time frame. Ironically, the percentage of development going to the best-governed countries has dropped even more, by two-thirds, in this period.

The Millennium Challenge Account may change this latter trend, given the $3.7 billion in commitments to 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

We have seen no increase in development assistance in areas such as democracy building, the rule of law, judicial reform, the strengthening of parliaments, education and enhancing the entrepreneurial skills of men and women.

To redress this, an Obama agenda will work with Congress to increase our investment in foreign assistance. Obama will spearhead an initiative to eliminate the global education deficit by establishing a Global Education Fund to help fill the financing gap for primary education in Africa and the developing world. He will also make the Millennium Development Goals America's goals.

On climate change, an Obama agenda will launch a Global Energy and Environment Initiative (GEE) to bring developing countries into the global effort to develop alternative sources of energy and mitigate the stark consequences of climate change.

Barack Obama's vision of leadership in this new era begins with the recognition of a fundamental reality: the security and well-being of each and every American is tied to the security and well-being of those who live beyond our borders, including in Africa. The United States will provide global leadership grounded in the understanding that the world shares a common security and a common humanity. We must lead not in the spirit of a patron, but in the spirit of a partner. Extending an outstretched hand to others must ultimately be about recognizing the inherent quality, dignity and worth of all people.

This kind of American leadership will also leverage engagement and resources from our traditional allies in the G8 countries, as well as from new actors, including emerging economies such as India, China, Brazil and South Africa, the private sector and global philanthropy.

Yet while America and our friends and our allies can help developing countries build more secure and prosperous societies, we must never forget that only the citizens of these nations can sustain them.

Bipartisan Policy

What all of us who are engaged in Africa have in common is a willingness to put partisanship aside when it comes to advocating for resources for Africa. There is no question that this bipartisan consensus, especially in Congress, needs to be nurtured, deepened and expanded.

The consensus was first forged in 2000, when the Clinton administration advocated for the African Growth and Opportunity Act. It was enhanced during the Bush administration, which extended AGOA three times, created the Millennium Challenge Account and, of course, the $15 billion PEPFAR programme.

This bipartisan consensus was evident several months ago when the Bush administration asked Congress to double to $30 million the amount that the U.S would spend on AIDS relief. In a stirring act of American compassion, Congress funded the program at $48 billion with another $2 million being allocated for programs in the U.S.

Barack Obama knows about bipartisanship through his work as community organizer, a state legislator in Illinois and a U.S. Senator. He understands that hunger is not a partisan issue, he understands that disease is not blue or red but it is very real. He understands that genocide in Darfur is not an issue of Republican or Democrat but one of morality and common humanity, and he worked with Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, to pass the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act in 2006.

By every measure, this election is historic. In voting for Barack Obama, you will be voting for genuine change and, when it comes to Africa, a deepening of those partnerships that benefit Africa and benefit America.

Witney W. Schneidman served as deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs in the Clinton administration. This article is excerpted from remarks to the Constituency for Africa 2008 Ronald H. Brown African Affairs Series forum on "U.S.-Africa Policy Agenda and the Next Administration" at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

iii. The Ethiopian Review Dr. J. Peter Pham, World Defense Reviewhttp://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/6368

The Africa policy of an Obama Adminstration

November 7th, 2008

By Dr. J. Peter Pham | World Defense Review

Senator Barack Obama's election as the forty-fourth President of the United States is, of course, a historic milestone in America. But it is also a major moment in African history as well. The president-elect's unique personal history means that he is the first son of Africa in the diaspora to be entrusted with the leadership of any major power, much less the chief magistry of what is still the world's political, military, economic, and cultural superpower. As I traveled in Africa over the course of the past year, the excitement of many Africans at the mere prospect of an Obama presidency was palpable. The spontaneous celebrations that broke out as word of the Democratic candidate's victory spread across many parts of the continent, including in Kenya, the president-elect's father was born on the shores of Lake Victoria and

raised in the nearby village of Nyang'oma Kogelo in Nyanza Province, attest to the incredible emotional investment which many Africans have made in the contest and the attention with which they have followed its vicissitudes. What remains to be determined, however, is what role Africa will actually play in the foreign policy of President Obama and what approaches he might adopt in with respect to the continent.

As an Africanist who has used this column space for more than two years to make the case for Africa's strategic significance to the United States, I was always convinced that the continent would have an increasing prominence irrespective of who succeeded George W. Bush. And while I had the honor of serving as the Africa advisor on Senator John McCain's foreign policy and national security team during the campaign, I believe that, for reasons of national interests and domestic politics as well as his own personal history, the incoming commander-in-chief can likewise be expected not only to continue but to enhance America's already extensive engagement with Africa.

At a panel discussion on the future of U.S.-African security and defense relations hosted by the American Enterprise Institute last month, I argued that there are three potential challenges to key American interests in Africa which will need to be faced in the near-to-intermediate term:

The first is, in the context of the ongoing global war on terrorism, the necessity of preventing of Africa's poorly governed spaces being exploited to provide facilitating environments, recruits, and eventual targets for Islamist terrorists. As the 2002 National Security Strategy of the United States of America noted, "Weak states … can pose as great a danger to our national interests as strong states. Poverty does not make poor people into terrorists and murderers. Yet poverty, weak institutions, and corruption can make weak states vulnerable to terrorist networks and drug cartels within their borders." With the possible exception of the Greater Middle East, nowhere did this analysis truer than Africa where, as the document went on to acknowledge, regional conflicts arising from a variety of causes, including poor governance, external aggression, competing claims, internal revolt, and ethnic and religious tensions all "lead to the same ends: failed states, humanitarian disasters, and ungoverned areas that can become safe havens for terrorists." The attacks by al-Qaeda on the U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, in 1998, and on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, and, simultaneously, on an Israeli commercial airliner in 2002 only underscore the deadly reality of the terrorist threat in Africa, as have the "rebranding" and increased activism and violence of the Algerian Islamist terrorist organization Salafist Group for Call and Combat (usually known by its French acronym GSPC) as "Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb" (AQIM) and the ongoing activities of al-Qaeda-linked Islamists in the territory of the former Somali Democratic Republic as well as the challenge of Somali piracy, which events like the September 25 heist of a Ukrainian-owned, Belizean-registered freighter, the MV Faina, which was carrying thirty-three refurbished Russian-made T-72 tanks and other armaments, have served to highlight (see the updated report this week by the Voice of America 's André de Nesnera ).

The second is protecting access to hydrocarbons and other strategic resources which Africa has in abundance and promoting the integration of African nations into the global economy. In his 2006 State of the Union address, President Bush called for the United States to "replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025" and to "make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past." In 2007, according to data from the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy

Information Administration, African countries accounted for more of America's petroleum imports than the states of the Persian Gulf region: 969,722,000 barrels (19.8 percent) versus 791,928,000 barrels (16.1 percent). Moreover, most of the petroleum from the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of West Africa is light or "sweet" crude, which is preferred by U.S. refiners because it is largely free of sulfur. While production fluctuates, the significance of Africa for America's energy security cannot be underestimated. And it goes without saying that U.S. planners have not been oblivious to the fact that other countries, including China, India, Japan, and Russia have been attracted by the African continent's natural wealth and recently increased their own engagements there. Although we should avoid the path of confrontation - and, indeed, seek cooperation in areas where our interests complement, both our mutual benefit and that of Africans - we need to also be vigilant that there are no monopolies or preferential treatment. Africa must have an "open door" to the world.

The third, which arises out of both the calculus of national interest as well as the inherent moral strain in American foreign policy, is empowering Africans and other partners to cope with the myriad humanitarian challenges, both man-made and natural, which afflict the continent with seeming disproportion - not just the devastating toll which conflict, poverty, and disease, especially HIV/AIDS, exact on Africans, but the depredations of the continent's remaining rogue regimes. The United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report 2007/2008 determined that all twenty-two of the countries found to have "low development" were African states. While the National Strategy for Combating Terrorism argued that terrorist organizations have little in common with the poor and destitute, it also acknowledged that terrorists can exploit these socio-economic conditions to their advantage. Under this heading the complex humanitarian emergencies of which Africa has perhaps more than its share. The ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing in the western Sudanese region of Darfur - whether or not one calls it a "genocide," as both President Bush and the U.S. Congress did - has already taken a toll of at least 250,000 victims and more than two million displaced; a hybrid United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force (UNAMID) is both undermanned and lacking in basic resources. In the same country, the fragile peace that has existed between the regime in Khartoum and the government of South Sudan since the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) brokered with the help of the United States shows signs of unraveling as the deadlines for both the 2009 nationwide elections and the 2011 referendum on South Sudanese self-determination rapidly approach (see my July 15 update on Sudan). Somalia, with the exception of the self-declared "Republic of Somaliland" in the northwest, remains without an effective government for over a decade and a half as a growing Islamist and clan insurgency threatens not only the current interim authorities (and their Ethiopian backers), but the stability of the entire Horn of Africa as waves of hundreds of thousands of civilians flee the conflict and more than half of the remaining 6 million face what might be the greatest humanitarian catastrophe in the region since the 1984-1985 Ethiopian famine. And while the intensity of the conflict is lower, Zimbabwe, once the bread basket of Southern Africa, continues to present a major humanitarian challenge as well as an uncertain future with the refusal of the Robert Mugabe regime to implement the power-sharing agreement it signed with the Movement for Democratic Change and its continual use of violence against its political opponents.

These relatively fixed considerations of the national interest, I would argue, virtually guaranteed that either a McCain or an Obama administration would have built on the foundations laid by its Bush predecessor whose numerous initiatives - including the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the extensions and expansions of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), and the establishment of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), which

became fully operational as a unified combatant command last month - have cumulatively result in the United States being more engaged with Africa than at any other period in American history (see my survey of the incumbent administration's Africa policy). Over the course of the campaign, I had the opportunity on a number of occasions to speak alongside and debate Dr. Witney W. Schneidman, the co-chair of Senator Obama's Africa advisory group. At forum sponsored by the Constituency for Africa at the National Press Club in Washington last month, we both had the opportunity to present the Africa vision of our respective principals (see Dr. Schneidman's "Africa: Obama's Three Objectives for the Continent" as well as my "Africa: McCain's Vision for Freedom, Peace, and Prosperity"). While some pundits on the right have already begun to express reservations about the priorities which might be embraced by the incoming administration, at least with respect to Africa policy, I have little to quarrel with the three fundamental objectives outlined by Dr. Schneidman on behalf Barack Obama: "to accelerate Africa's integration into the global economy…to enhance the peace and security of African states…to strengthen relationships with those governments, institutions and civil society organizations committed to deepening democracy, accountability and reducing poverty in Africa."

Dr. Schneidman, who served as deputy assistant secretary of state for Africa affairs in the Clinton administration, was also quite balanced in his assessment to President Bush's accomplishments:

But let's give credit where it is due. PEPFAR, with 1.7 million people in Africa on anti-retrovirals, has been an extremely important initiative, as has the Bush administration's program to eradicate malaria and address neglected tropical diseases. It is often said that this administration's legacy in Africa will revolve around these programs and the tripling in development assistance from $2 billion in 2000 to $6 billion today - and rightly so. Nevertheless, the picture is incomplete if we stop there. The reality is that the bulk of this increase is due to increased spending on HIV/AIDS, humanitarian assistance and debt relief. In fact, development assistance to the poorest countries in Africa has decreased by half in this time frame. Ironically, the percentage of development going to the best-governed countries has dropped even more, by two-thirds, in this period. The Millennium Challenge Account may change this latter trend, given the $3.7 billion in commitments to ten countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

As Gregory Simpkins, vice president for policy and program development at the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation and a former professional staff member of the Africa subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives, pointed out in an allAfrica.com op-ed last month, there has been remarkable continuity in recent U.S. policy toward Africa, with succeeding administrations building on their predecessor's legacies. I anticipate that that bipartisan tradition will continue, as my hitherto counterpart has acknowledged it needs to:

What all of us who are engaged in Africa have in common is a willingness to put partisanship aside when it comes to advocating for resources for Africa. There is no question that this bipartisan consensus, especially in Congress, needs to be nurtured, deepened and expanded. The consensus was first forged in 2000, when the Clinton administration advocated for the African Growth and Opportunity Act. It was enhanced during the Bush administration, which extended AGOA three times, created the Millennium Challenge Account and, of course, the $15 billion PEPFAR program. This bipartisan consensus was evident several months ago when the Bush administration asked Congress to double to $30 million the amount that the U.S would spend on AIDS relief. In a stirring act of American compassion, Congress

funded the program at $48 billion with another $2 million being allocated for programs in the U.S.

I would suggest that that bipartisanship will be more needed in the coming months than ever. Achieving U.S. strategic interests in Africa and advancing the just causes like ending the genocide in Darfur, assuring the full implementation of the CPA between the Khartoum regime and the South Sudanese, and resolving the conflict in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo are not Democratic or Republican causes, but American priorities on which both presidential candidates largely converged, even if they differed on emphases (see the responses by both to a comprehensive questionnaire submitted by the Enough Action Fund, the Save Darfur Coalition, and the Genocide Intervention Network). However, given the recent financial panics and the overall climate of uncertainty with respect to the economy, mustering the political wherewithal to pursue these consensus goals - to say nothing of President-elect Obama's ambitious Africa agenda, including the doubling of America's foreign assistance budget to $50 billion per year - will require that Africa's advocates on both sides of the political aisle work together. And, given the large areas where Democratic and Republican positions on Africa have overlapped, the incoming administration might find that Africa policy might be one are where it can most easily achieve an early success in the drive for "bipartisan unity on foreign policy" that the Obama-Biden campaign has promised to deliver.

Just one possible avenue for bipartisan cooperation is ensuring that the new Africa Command receives the resources it needs to adequately assume the responsibilities which have been entrusted to it, including fighting the global war on terror's African front and managing the military relationships America must maintain with African countries in order to assist in the building up of their own security and other governance capabilities. Another is accelerating Africa's integration into the global economy. As Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and DeBeers Chairman Nicky Oppenheimer argued in an International Herald Tribune op-ed two months ago , "Aid is good, business is better." While advocating free trade is a sensitive issue with some elements in the Democratic coalition, the Obama administration should nonetheless not only seek to open up additional trade opportunities for African economies under a strengthened AGOA framework, but it should work to mobilize the private sector to invest in Africa, creating new opportunities not only for American business, but also for Africans to achieve their own dreams. After all, worldwide it is private enterprise, especially small-to-medium firms, which delivers the sustainable economic growth which so many Africans and their friends seek to jump-start. Republicans, whose 2008 national platform strongly advocated this position, should not hesitate to support President Obama in expanding trade with Africa. The new administration also needs to call for an intensified effort by African governments to eliminate unnecessary barriers, uncertainties, and other disincentives that continue to discourage both African and foreign private investors from doing business in Africa. The U.S.-Rwanda bilateral investment treaty, signed earlier this year by President Bush and President Paul Kagame, is one of only a handful of such accords that America has with a Sub-Saharan African nation (the others currently in force are those with Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, and Senegal) and ought to be a model which the incoming administration should try to replicate across the continent.

One additional task that the new administration might undertake is to develop a comprehensive national strategy for U.S. engagement in Africa. It's a step that I advocated for during the campaign, not for political points, but because I am convinced it is genuinely required as a tool of statecraft. As needed and welcome as the acknowledgment of select American stakes in Africa and consequent new

programming, institutional design, and personnel deployments - all undertakings which have gotten underway during the eight years of President Bush's tenure - were, these steps by themselves do not equal what is really required: a high-level national dialogue aimed at building a policy consensus, captured perhaps in a document, which articulates American strategic interests in Africa (especially, obviously, those interests which coincide with the needs and wants of our partners on the continent), prioritizes them, defines the vehicles for achieving these objectives, and allocates the relevant responsibilities. During the campaign, Senator Obama and his running mate, Senator Joseph Biden, pledged to convene a bipartisan consultative group of leading members of Congress - including the chairs and ranking members of the Armed Services, Foreign Relations, Intelligence, and Appropriations Committees - to foster better executive-legislative relations and review foreign policy priorities. A similar consultative effort, perhaps modeled on a study body like the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, ought to be set in motion to consider America's Africa strategy.

Alongside developing a more comprehensive strategic approach to Africa, the new administration needs to think about better coordination of the various governmental stakeholders. While AFRICOM and other institutions of U.S. government has made tremendous strides towards achieving greater cooperation between themselves on the continent, the reality is that National Security Council process which is supposed to coordinate the action of the interagency community does little than provide opportunities for dialogue and information sharing without the ability to actually prioritize and ensure the resources are forthcoming from individual departments to actually implement agreed-upon national policies.

Of course, America's Africa policy needs to be a two-way street. Many Africans I have spoken with over the course of the last eighteen months or so were not only highly enthused by the Obama candidacy, but have very high - I would even say unreasonable - expectations of what he would do for the continent once he is ensconced in the Oval Office. The new president and his team will need to be very careful in their management of these expectations. A more realistic list of what African leaders would want from the next administration was ticked off by Jean Ping, the chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, in a speech he gave in Washington last month:

Firstly, it is our hope that a new U.S. administration will remain engaged with Africa as it has been over the last few years. This engagement is illustrated by the establishment of a U.S. mission dedicated to the African Union Commission separate from the U.S. mission to Ethiopia. Thus far, the U.S. is the only country with such a mission in Addis Ababa and the granting of diplomatic status to the African Union mission in Washington is also unique. Consequently, it is our hope that strengthening Africa-U.S. Partnership, underpinned by carefully balanced strategic approach to U.S.-Africa relations will continue to be maintained.

Secondly, encouraging more regular high-level interactions and dialogue both on the continent and in the U.S. for first-hand knowledge of African needs and realities as well as U.S. expectations, will also be very helpful. This will ensure that the U.S. is able to act on Africa on the basis of facts and Africa's real needs.

Thirdly, strengthening institutional working relations between both the executive and the legislative branches and the African Union Commission as well as working relations with the newly established African Union mission in Washington will be well appreciated.

Fourthly, it will be our hope that the U.S. will play a leadership role in ensuring that global commitments that are so crucial for Africa's development are duly implemented through the G-8 and other global fora.

Fifthly, encouraging targeted support to the implementation of existing African Union initiatives and programs will be, we hope, a major focus of the new administration.

All five of these are modest enough requests and one would expect that President Obama would get bipartisan backing for Washington's enhanced support of the AU and subregional bodies for especially for such African-led undertakings which truly strengthen legitimate and accountable governance on the continent, such as the African Peer Review Mechanism and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), which promise so much, even if they have yet to be proven.

While there are strategic and political reasons which will drive it, there is no denying that the Africa policy of an Obama administration will be given added momentum by the incoming president's personal story. What Senator McCain said in his extraordinarily moving election night concession speech about Barack Obama "inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president" and his recognition of "the special significance [the historic election] has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs" could be easily be extended to include Africans, both on the continent and in the diaspora. The excitement sweeping across Africa now presents the new U.S. chief executive with a rare opportunity to translate effusive sentiments of good will into a windfall of diplomatic capital which, if he husbands it prudently, can significantly advance America's values and interests on the continent while helping to achieve Africans' aspirations for peace, stability, and development.

iv.

Barack Obama on Africa

Majored in international affairs based on living abroad

Q: Why did you major in international affairs?

A: Well, obviously, having lived overseas and having lived in Hawaii, having a mother who was a specialist in international development, who was one of the early practitioners of microfinancing, and would go to villages in South Asia and Africa and Southeast Asia, helping women buy a loom or a sewing machine or a milk cow, to be able to enter into the economy--it was natural for me, to be interested in international affairs.

The Vietnam War had drawn to a close when I was fairly young. And so, that wasn't formative for me in the way it was, I think, for an earlier generation.

The Cold War, though, still loomed large. And I thought that both my interest in what was then called the Third World and development there, as well as my interest in issues like nuclear proliferation and policy, that I thought that I might end up going into some sort of international work at some point in my life.

Source: CNN Late Edition: 2008 presidential series on Zakaria's GPS Jul 13, 2008

Moral obligation to intervene in Darfur to avoid spillover

Q: What about Darfur? You've called for a UN no-fly zone, but the Chinese and the Russians will probably not go along with it, so it'd be a US or NATO no-fly zone.

A: In a situation like Darfur, I think that the world has a self-interest in ensuring that genocide is not taking place on our watch. Not only because of the moral and ethical implications, but also because chaos in Sudan ends up spilling over into Chad. It ends up spilling over into other parts of Africa, can end up being repositories of terrorist activity. Those are all things that we've got to pay attention to. And if we have enough nations that are willing--particularly African nations, and not just Western nations--that are willing to intercede in an effective, coherent way, then I think that we need to act.

Source: CNN Late Edition: 2008 presidential series on Zakaria's GPS Jul 13, 2008

Wrote 2006 law stabilizing Congo with $52M

Obama wrote the law signed in 2006 that provided $52 million in US assistance to help stabilize the Congo, and he worked to approve $20 million for the African Union peacekeeping mission. Obama also worked with Sam Brownback (R-Kans.), writing an op-ed in the Washington Post criticizing the Bush administration's failure to stop genocide in Darfur.

Source: The Improbable Quest, by John K. Wilson, p.160 Oct 30, 2007

Increased aid to Republic of Congo

[Obama had planned his trip to Africa since 2005]. Conversations I had with Obama along the 2004 campaign trail made it abundantly clear that the atrocities of Darfur's civil war were a deep source of concern for him. Also, as a senator, Obama was successful in passing an amendment to a 2006 Iraqi spending bill that increased aid to the Republic of Congo.

The 15-day trip to Africa was organized to include visits to 5 countries, but the bulk of the journey was to be spent in South Africa and then Kenya. After Kenya, Obama had planned brief visits to the Congo, Djibouti and the Darfur region of Sudan, site of the bloody conflict that was killing thousands of Sudanese a month and displacing millions more.

But Kenya, the homeland of his father, was the physical and emotional centerpiece of the trip. Kenyans had adopted him as one of their own, and had made him a living folk hero in the East African nation.

Source: From Promise to Power, by David Mendell, p.322-323 Aug 14, 2007

Visited largest slum in Africa, to publicize its plight

[Obama's African trip] would take us to one of the bleakest places on the planet. Kibera is recognized as the largest single slum in all of Africa, and thus in all the world. Over 700,000 impoverished souls are packed into a tract of urban land that is just 2.5 square kilometers. Situated in the southwest quadrant of Nairobi, Kibera was first settled extensively in the 1920s by an ethnic group called Nubians.

Many residents lacked basic services, such as clean running water and plumbing. Sewage and garbage were dumped into the open; dwellings were made of canvas and tin with corrugated roofing; and some children appeared less than fully nourished.

The inhabitants, however, were positively gleeful at Obama's visit. Obama grabbed a bullhorn. "Everybody in Kibera needs the same opportunities to go to school, to start businesses, to have enough to eat, to have decent clothes," he told the residents, who madly cheered his words. "I wants to make sure everybody in America knows Kibera.

Source: From Promise to Power, by David Mendell, p.367-369 Aug 14, 2007

No-fly zone in Darfur; but pay attention more in Africa

Q: Darfur is the second time that our nation has had a chance to do something about genocide in Africa. The first came in Rwanda in 1994, when we did nothing.

RICHARDSON: What I would like to do is, one, a no-fly zone. Get economic sanctions backed by the Europeans; we should use the levers on China. We need to find ways to stop the massive rapes.

OBAMA: The no-fly zone is important. Having the protective force is critical. But we have to look at Africa not just after a crisis happens; what are we doing with respect to trade opportunities with Africa? What are we doing in terms of investment in Africa? What are we doing to pay attention to Africa consistently with respect to our foreign policy? That has been what's missing in the White House. Our long-term security is going to depend on whether we're giving children in Sudan and Zimbabwe and in Kenya the same opportunities so that they have a stake in order as opposed to violence and chaos.

Source: 2007 Democratic Primary Debate at Howard University Jun 28, 2007

U.S. funds for humanitarian aid to Darfur

The United States should raise the needed funds to ensure that the civilians in Sudan receive life saving humanitarian assistance. We should lead in contributing the lion's share of these funds so that we can convince others to give their fair share as well--the United States should support the immediate deployment of an effective international force to disarm militias, protect civilians, and facilitate delivery of humanitarian assistance in Darfur.

Source: In His Own Words, edited by Lisa Rogak, p. 26 Mar 27, 2007

Protested South African apartheid while at college

[While at college in the '80s] Obama became involved in the movement to demand that colleges divest themselves of financial interests that helped support apartheid in South Africa.

At a rally, Obama rose to speak in public for the first time: "There is a struggle going on. It is happening an ocean away. But it is a struggle that touches each and every one of us... a struggle that demands we choose sides. Not between black & white. Not between rich & poor. No, it is a choice between dignity & servitude. Between fairness & injustice. Between commitment & indifference. A choice between right & wrong."

By prearrangement, he was dragged off by students dressed as soldiers to dramatize the lack of rights in South Africa. He did not want to give up the microphone. The audience was "clapping and cheering, and I knew that I had them, that the connection had been made. I really wanted to stay up there, to hear my voice bouncing off the crowd and returning back to me in applause. I had so much left to say.

Source: Hopes and Dreams, by Steve Dougherty, p. 58-59 Feb 15, 2007

Focus on corruption to improve African development

During Obama's trip to Kenya, at an Aug. 28 2006 speech in Nairobi, he stung some Kenyan officials enough that they sent Obama a scathing official complaint, because Obama pointedly encouraged Kenyan officials to do more to fight corruption:Like many nations across this continent, where Kenya is failing is in its ability to create a government that is transparent and accountable One that serves its people and is free from corruption. The reason I speak of the freedom you fought so hard to win is because today that freedom is in jeopardy. It is being threatened by corruption.

Corruption is not a new problem. It's not just a Kenyan problem, or an African problem. It's a human problem, and it has existed in some form in almost every society. My own city of Chicago has been the home of some of the most corrupt local politics in American history. But while corruption is a problem we all share, here in Kenya it is a crisis that's robbing an honest people of opportunities.

Source: Should Barack Obama Be President?, by Fred Zimmerman, p.29 Oct 17, 2006

Visited Africa in 2006; encouraged HIV testing & research

http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Barack_Obama_Foreign_Policy.htm#Africa

Editorials:

http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?page=imprimable&id_article=29350 Wed, Dec 03, 2008

16:01 UT

US policy on the Horn of Africa under Obama administrationSaturday 22 November 2008.

By Kumsa Aba Gerba

November 21, 2008 —

The sweltering African issue during the Bush lame duck session and the Obama transition period has been the DR Congo crisis. The two Sudanese problems, i.e the Southern Sudan referendum and the Darfur issue have also been in the front burner. Until the November election results, some optimist neo-con hawks in the Bush and McCain camp, along with the Christian Right and oil companies had a grand scheme of seceding the Southern Sudan as a separate country toying with the upcoming referendum by using covert operatives in the area posing as NGOs and referendum observers. The Somalia problem however had been lost in the shuffle. The wish of the current Pentagon policy makers to recognize the self declared independent Somaliland as a country has been moot as it was forsaken by State Department last year. The recent hijacking of a major oil tanker may have put the spot light back on Somalia. Anyhow, both Sudanese and Somali problems shall directly affect US-Ethiopian relations.

Under the new Obama administration the Horn of Africa will be a foreign policy archetype and test case for various interest groups. Unlike Bush, under the Obama administration, it seems that foreigner policy making shall go from the Pentagon and NSA back to its original home, the State Department. Most of the African policy issues in the new administration will depend on the characters and attitudes of people that will join Camp Obama.

It is now highly likely that Senator Hilary Clinton is going to be the top diplomat for President Obama. If Senator Hilary Clinton takes the helm at the State Department, she will definitely bring in her own people from the old Clinton era. Some foreign policy watchers perceive some activities by John Podesta, Susan Rice, Russ Feingold and Donald Payne marketing several people for posts in African affairs, regardless of who is at the helm of the State Department.

By some odd condition related to her husband’s global activity, if Senator Hillary Clinton does not take the State Department post, the position might go to Senator John Kerry who is said to be actively lobbying for it. If John Kerry takes the State Department job he will be out of the senate. His chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will

have to go a senator second in line. The first in line on seniority is Senator Chris Dodd. But Senator Dodd is the chair for the Banking Committee which, these days, is a hot post that he may not let go. Thus Senator Feingold is second runner up. Senator Feingold is an arch foe of the Ethiopian government’s NGO law. He has been sponsoring NGOs to run abortion clinics in Ethiopia, among other things he has been working with various NGOs and opposition elements in Ethiopia.

Ms. Susan Rice was initially the focal point for the State Department job but Obama’s close advisors did not think of her as the top diplomat. Sources say that Susan Rice was then assumed for the post as a UN Ambassador. It now appears that it is going to be from the Kennedy family. Thus some observers say that she may end up at the NSA.

With direct impact on US-Ethiopian relations, one personality to keep watching is a former congressional librarian and a Donald Payne assistant named Ted Dange, an Ethiopian-American married to a Somali-American, with a special affinity towards ONLF, an Ogaden Somali Separatist armed insurgent. Ted Dange is being sponsored by his close friends Donald Payne and Susan Rice for some post in the Obama’s State Department African Affairs camp. Ted Dange’s handlers are working hard to make sure that he is on a list of not only for a job at the State Department but also at several other agencies dealing with African policy. Some sources close to him say that he is no more interested in the African politics but rather in the trade and commerce aspect of Africa.

On another front, Obama’s transition co-chair John Podesta, a former Clinton chief of staff, is also pushing two intriguing figures to the African affairs arena. One is Colin Thomas-Jensen, a former peace corps in Ethiopia from 1996 to 1998. Mr. Thomas-Jenson had been working hard to put Omar Al Bashir behind bars for a long time for the Darfur disaster. He was recently in Addis for a field research on Sudan and Somalia as part of the recent article for the “ENOUGH” project run by John Morris who is also another potential runner for some positions on African affairs. The other is Ruben Brigety, a former state Department official who was also the head of Human Rights Watch for Arms Proliferation Division on Africa. Mr. Brigety is one of the personalities who authors the Annual State Department Human Rights Reports.

Some personalities that were active proposing polices on Africa during the campaign may not make it to any post due to allegation by Senator Feingold and Congressman Payne as sympathetic to the Ethiopian government. One is former Congressman Howard Wople who chaired the African Committee for ten years. The other is Gail Smith who is still advising the Obama Camp on Africa. Observers say that Ms Smith is not even interested in African political affairs anymore, but seems to be interested more in global warming and security issues.

On the other side of the coin, Whitney Damron, a lobbyist/consultant was campaign adviser for Obama about African Diaspora. Whitney D became close to US based Ethiopian opposition groups during the election and he was the contact person for their campaign fundraising. His relationship with the Obama transition team has been officially severed. This is because of a new Obama rule against lobbyists not to be on his

transition and his cabinet posts. Nonetheless the Washington DC revolving door is hard to monitor as to who goes in and out.

Whether or not the Obama Administration will heed the aggressive and antagonistic way of Congressman Payne and Senator Feingold is yet to be seen. Be that as it may, some in congress strongly believe that Obama will govern from the center and his foreign policy shall be moderate and accommodative towards underdeveloped countries.

US policy on the turbulent situations in Sudan and Somalia will directly affect Ethiopia, for it is sandwiched between these two major crisis points with dreadful regional and global impacts. Eritrea, Ethiopian northern neighbor and arch foe, may not be on the radar screen of US African policy right now but it remains a wild card in the stability of the region.

Due to the explosive and chaotic conditions in Somalia and Sudan, one would assume US relations with Ethiopia would at best be lukewarm, if not congenial. On the Ethiopian side, the government is working on pressing on to pass the new NGO law and working on getting out of Somalia as soon as possible. These Ethiopian moves may not bode well with the United States and may adversely impact US monetary and food aid that have always come along with some strings attached. With all these variables, whether or not US-Ethiopian relations will chill or warm up is yet to be seen.

The author is an Ethiopian American graduate student of International Relations in USA. He can be reached at abagerba@yahoo.com

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