Notes
1. This analysis looks at Obama’s approach to Africa on its own terms and should not be read as a comparative examination of the performance of Obama’s Africa policy vis-à-vis Clinton’s and Bush’s policies. That exercise can best be done at the end of the Obama administration. The Clinton and Bush eras are brought into the discussions to provide context for the analysis, and more importantly, to show that there are striking similarities between U.S.-Africa relations during the Obama administration and that of his immediate predecessors.
2. Note that the Clinton administration did not realize the importance of developing sustainable relations between the U.S and AU’s predecessor, the Organization of Africa Unity (OAU). Except for a small amount of financial support from U.S. agencies to support the work of the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, and Resolution, the Clinton administration had little to do with OAU. Typical of tied aid, the majority of these resources went back to U.S.-affiliated institutions and consultants. The Bush administration did not consider the AU, which replaced OAU five months after President Bush assumed office, a major player in African politics until 2007 when the AU successfully led the campaign to prevent African states from hosting United States Africa Command (AFRICOM). The Bush administration established the first permanent U.S. mission to the AU when it became apparent that the pan-African organization was behind the hostile attitude of Africans towards AFRICOM; as a result the Pentagon sent a couple of missions to the AU, but the moves were too little too late.
3. A podcast of the broadcast is available online at: www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/witness. Accessed August 10, 2010.
4. Resolutions 1390 (2002); 1455 (2003); 1526 (2004); and 1617 (2005) have since been adopted to strengthen and modify Resolutions 1267.
5. The Act, signed into law by President Geroge W. Bush on October 26, 2001, provided an expansive definition of terrorism, gave sweeping powers to American law enforcement agencies to search records of people, institutions, and agencies in the U.S.’s jurisdiction, empowered immigration officials to search, detain, and deport suspected terrorists, mandated the secretary of the U.S. treasury to monitor and regulate financial transactions, especially involving non-Americans, and in general curtailed the civil liberties and privacy of Americans.
6. For details see Convention on Offences and Certain Other Acts Committed on Board Aircraft (1963); Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft (1970); Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation (1971); Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Internationally Protected Persons, Including Diplomatic Agents (1973); International Convention against the Taking of Hostages (1979); Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (1979); Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts of Violence at Airports Serving International Civil Aviation (1988), Supplementary to the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation; Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (1988); Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Fixed Platforms Located on the Continental Shelf (1988); Convention on the Marking of Plastic Explosives for the Purpose of Identification (1991); International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings (1997); International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (1999); International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism (2005); Amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (2005); Protocol of 2005 to the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation; Protocol of 2005 to the Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Fixed Platforms Located on the Continental Shelf (1988).
7. As part of the effort to enhance Security Council capacity to implement the resolution, the CTC created the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTC/CTED) in 2005.
8. Testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, September 19, 2006.
9. Kinship groups are unilineal descent groups. They are at times mischaracterized pejoratively as ethnic or tribal groups, especially by those who do not understand their socio-economic and political significance in Africa.