Abstract
The U.S. has taken positive steps to promote the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in its African foreign policy as a means of protecting civilians against international crimes and violations of international humanitarian law: the temporary protected status to Cameroon citizens; the NATO-led military intervention in Libya; and the establishment of the U.S. Africa Command. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that American intervention in Africa presents U.S. diplomacy with a variety of difficult operational challenges as it tried to bring peace to a continent ravaged by political decay, socio-economic disintegration, and disasters. The methodology is primarily descriptive. By analysing American foreign policy in Africa, the essay gives way to an empirical perspective on recent trends on the implementation of the R2P. As for originality, literature on U.S. foreign relations to Africa is relevant. However, studies that specifically analyse the critical impacts of the R2P with specific reference to initiatives dictated by the growth of American interests in Africa are rather limited. This essay aims at covering that gap in international relations scholarship. The paper argues that the implementation of R2P in U.S. foreign policy translates the commitment to eliminating terrorism and the threat it poses to the protection of civilians across the continent. Broadly speaking, the R2P scheme reflects America’s recognition of its common humanity and a new clarity in its collective conscience that certain actions could not be allowed to stand. The U.S. has embraced the R2P as a principle of protection anchored in four pillars: America’s obligations to the world, States responsibility to protect their citizens, its shared responsibility to assist States on human rights enforcement, and its preparedness to take decisive action where national authorities failed to do so. With these transformations, Africa is gaining strategic importance in American foreign relations.
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Notes
- 1.
Evans, G. (2019). The Responsibility to Protect in Africa. Address to Mark Africa Day 2019. Australian National University. Retrieved from https://www.gevans.org/speeches/Speech695.html. Accessed 20 May 2023.
- 2.
Šimonović, I. (2016). The Responsibility to Protect. Human Rights. 4 (LIII).
- 3.
See also Skinner, E. P. (1992). African Americans and U.S. Policy Toward Africa, 1850–1924: In Defense of Black Nationality. Howard University Press; Ledwidge, M. (2012). Race and US Foreign Policy: The African-American foreign Affairs Network. Routledge.
- 4.
Finnemore, M. (2006, November/December). Book Review of Liberal Order and Imperial Ambition: Essays on American Power and International Order by G. John Ikenberry. Foreign Affairs.
- 5.
See also Strategy for Peace Conference. (1991, October 24). Changing Realities in the Horn of Africa: Implications for Africa and US Policy: Report of the Thirty-Second Strategy for Peace, US Foreign Policy Conference. 32 (Warrenton). Nomsa Daniels (rapporteur). Stanley Foundation; Woodward, P. (2006). US Foreign Policy and the Horn of Africa. Ashgate.
- 6.
U.S. White House, Office of the Press Secretary. (2011, March 28). Remarks by the President in Address to the Nation on Libya. UNSC Verbatim Record (10 May 2011) UN Doc S/PV/6531, 15. Retrieved from https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/03/28/remarks-president-address-nation-libya. Accessed 16 May 2023.
- 7.
Malknecht, A., & Norris, J. (2013, June 13). Atrocities Prevention Board. Background, Performance, and Options. Centre for American Progress; Feinstein, L., & Lindberg, T. (2015, September 11). Arresting Atrocity. Foreign Affairs.
- 8.
U.S. Mission to International Organisations in Geneva. (2012, June 19). The U.S. Strongly Supports the Concept of Responsbility to Protect (R2P). Retrieved at https://geneva.usmission.gov/2012/06/19/the-u-s-strong-supporter-of-the-concept-of-responsibility-to-protect-r2p/. Accessed 20 May 2023.
- 9.
U.S. Mission to International Organizations in Geneva. (2012). The Role of the Human Rights Council in Supporting the Practical Implementation of the Responsibility to Protect. Side Event. Statement by the Delegation of the United States of America Human Rights Council 20th Session, Geneva, June 19, 2012. U.S. Mission.
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Albright, M. K., & Williamson, R. (2013). The United States and R2P: From Words to Action. The Brookings Institute.
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Dongmo, C. (2024). The Responsibility to Protect in American Foreign Policy Towards Africa. In: Erameh, N.I., Ojakorotu, V. (eds) Africa's Engagement with the Responsibility to Protect in the 21st Century. Africa's Global Engagement: Perspectives from Emerging Countries. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8163-2_11
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