View the CFR General Meeting on More than Humanitarianism, featuring Soledad O'Brien, Princeton N. Lyman, J. Stephen Morrison, and Christine Todd Whitman, January 23, 2006.
U.S. policy toward Africa has traditionally been framed largely in terms of humanitarian and development needs. Moral responsibility and the link to America's African American population have been the driving forces of policy. Security interests have been considered marginal; trade and other economic benefits—outside the oil sector—have, at best, been seen as having only longterm potential. This approach has led to fitful long-term investments in building the institutions of democracy, security, and development in Africa, as well as to inadequate investment in the staffing and intelligence resources needed by the United States to gauge the important developments taking place on the continent.
In this timely report, a bipartisan task force uses a more comprehensive approach, taking into account the growth of U.S. direct interests in Africa and the recent trend in U.S. policy toward more high-level and sustained engagement. The contributors make critical findings regarding the major problems facing Africa as well as the current state of U.S. policy. They also give concrete recommendations for the adjustment of policy toward the African continent with regard to its changing importance to U.S. interests.