Judd Devermont is the director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He previously served as the national intelligence officer for Africa, the Central Intelligence Agency’s senior political analyst on sub-Saharan Africa, and the National Security Council director for Somalia, Nigeria, the Sahel, and the African Union.
Subscribe to this Lawfare contributor via RSS.
The offer of assistance from African nations should be welcomed, appreciated, and understood from humanitarian and geopolitical perspectives.
The response to the global pandemic by African countries and their external partners has been hampered by a lack of coordination. To streamline efforts to combat the coronavirus in Africa, the U.S. should consider exporting the “Quad Plus” framework used in the Indo-Pacific.
As the Pentagon contemplates a drawdown of the U.S. military presence in Africa, it is imperative for the U.S. military to reaffirm its non-counterterrorism missions in the region and reform how it executes its counterterrorism programs.
Russia is preparing to launch its first Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi on Oct. 24. President Vladimir Putin and the summit co-host, Egyptian leader and African Union Chairman Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, invited all of the African heads of state along with the leaders of major subregional associations and organizations. Russia almost certainly will advertise the summit as an emblem of its triumphant return to center stage in Africa.
A trio of White House strategies have heralded the return of strategic competition between the United States and its adversaries, China and Russia, in sub-Saharan Africa.