Issue cover

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2023)

View Issue TOC

Selective Engagement after Unipolarity: U.S. Foreign Policy, Strategic Competition, and African Agency in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abraham Kuol Nyuon
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19602874
Published: April 16, 2026

Abstract

Selective engagement after unipolarity provides a framework for understanding U.S. foreign policy toward Sub-Saharan Africa in the post-unipolar moment, emphasising strategic competition and the limits of liberal internationalism. Post-unipolar U.S.–Africa policy is best understood as a shifting compromise among liberal internationalist rhetoric, strategic competition, counterterror imperatives, and bureaucratic fragmentation across security, development, and commercial agencies. Drawing on comparative analysis of Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden Africa strategies; content analysis of National Security Strategy documents, congressional hearings, and AFRICOM budget data; and elite interviews with former State Department and NSC officials, the study engages debates in hegemonic stability theory, liberal internationalism versus offshore balancing, and African international relations theory. It situates U.S.–Africa policy within broader transformations in the international order. Three core claims are advanced. First, successive administrations sustained a discourse of democracy and partnership while prioritising security access and regime cooperation where strategic interests were highest. Second, Sino–American competition has widened African bargaining space in some areas but also intensified transactionalism and weakened value-based conditionality. Third, the coexistence of AFRICOM, USAID, MCC, Treasury, and diplomatic priorities generates persistent implementation incoherence that African governments navigate strategically. The study concludes that an African-centred reading of U.S. policy must assess not only stated objectives but also the distributional consequences of aid, military partnerships, and investment tools. Greater policy coherence is needed to align governanc

Full Text:

PDF HTML Cover Image

Read the Full Article

The HTML galley is loaded below for inline reading and better discovery.

Open HTML Open PDF

How to Cite

Abraham Kuol Nyuon (2026). Selective Engagement after Unipolarity: U.S. Foreign Policy, Strategic Competition, and African Agency in Sub-Saharan Africa. African Foreign Policy Analysis (Political Science focus), Vol. 1 No. 1 (2023). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19602874
EndNote (RIS) BibTeX

Keywords

U.S. foreign policyAfricaAFRICOMSino-American competitionliberal internationalismstrategic competition

Research Snapshot

Desktop reading view
Language
EN
Formats
HTML + PDF
Publication Track
Vol. 1 No. 1 (2023)
Current Journal
African Foreign Policy Analysis (Political Science focus)

References

  • Marija Popović (2015). Acharya Amitav, The end of American World Order, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2014. Journal of Regional Security, 10(2), 199-201. https://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/2217-995x/2015/2217-995x1502199P.pdf
  • Phillip J. Clapham; James G. Mead (1999). Megaptera novaeangliae. Mammalian Species, 1-1. https://doi.org/10.2307/3504352
  • Richard Fontaine; Daniel M. Kliman (2012). International Order and Global Swing States. The Washington Quarterly, 36(1), 93-109. https://doi.org/10.1080/0163660x.2013.751653
  • Cvetić Andrej (2019). Mearsheimer John J.: The great delusion: Liberal dreams and international realities, Yale University Press, 2018. Journal of Regional Security, 14(1), 45-47. https://doi.org/10.5937/jrs1901045c
  • Sarah Blach; Norah A. Terrault; Frank Tacke; Ivane Gamkrelidze; Antonio Craxı̀; Junko Tanaka; Imam Waked; Gregory J. Dore; Zaigham Abbas; Ayat R. Abdallah; Maheeba Abdulla; Alessio Aghemo; Inka Aho; Ulus Salih Akarca; Abduljaleel Alalwan; Marianne Alanko Blomé; Said A. Al‐Busafi; Soo Aleman; Abdullah Alghamdi; Waleed K. Al‐Hamoudi; Abdulrahman Aljumah; Khalid Al‐Naamani; Yousif M Al Serkal; Ibrahim Altraif; Anil C. Anand; Motswedi Anderson; Monique Andersson; Kostas Athanasakis; Oidov Baatarkhuu; Shokhista Bakieva; Ziv Ben‐Ari; Fernando Bessone; Mia J. Biondi; Abdul Rahman Bizri; Carlos Eduardo Brandão‐Mello; Krestina Brigida; Kimberly Brown; Robert S. Brown; Philip Bruggmann; Maurizia Rossana Brunetto; Dana Busschots; Marı́a Buti; Maia Butsashvili; Joaquín Cabezas; Chungman Chae; Viktorija Chaloska Ivanova; Henry Lik‐Yuen Chan; Hugo Cheinquer; Kent Jason G. Cheng; Myeong-Eun Cheon; Cheng‐Hung Chien; Rong‐Nan Chien; Gourdas Choudhuri; Peer Brehm Christensen; Wan‐Long Chuang; Vladimir Chulanov; Laura Cisneros; B. Coco; Fernando A Contreras; Markus Cornberg; Matthew Cramp; Javier Crespo; Fuqiang Cui; Chris Cunningham; Lucy Dagher Abou; Olav Dalgård; Doan Y Dao; Victor de Lédinghen; Moutaz Derbala; Keshab Deuba; Karan Dhindsa; Samsuridjal Djauzi; Sylvia Dražilová; Ann‐Sofi Duberg; Mohammed Elbadri; Manal H. El‐Sayed; Gamal Esmat; Chris Estes; Sameera Ezzat; Martti Färkkilâ; Laurent Ferradini; Maria Lúcia Gomes Ferraz; Paulo Roberto Abrão Ferreira; Tajana Filipec Kanižaj; Robert Flisiak; Soňa Fraňková; James Fung; Amiran Gamkrelidze; Edward Gane; Virginia Garcia; Javier García‐Samaniego; Manik Gemilyan; Jordan Genov; Liliana Gheorghe; Pierre M. Gholam; Adrian Goldis; Magnús Gottfreðsson; Richard T. Gray; Jason Grebely; Michael Gschwantler (2022). Global change in hepatitis C virus prevalence and cascade of care between 2015 and 2020: a modelling study. The Lancet. Gastroenterology & hepatology, 7(5), 396-415. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-1253(21)00472-6
  • Schraeder, Peter J. (1994). United States Foreign Policy toward Africa. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511598784
  • Inken Von Borzyskowski; Felicity Vabulas (2023). When Do Withdrawal Threats Achieve Reform in International Organizations?. Global Perspectives, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.1525/gp.2023.67826
  • Kashif Abbass; Muhammad Qasim; Huaming Song; Muntasir Murshed; Haider Mahmood; Ijaz Younis (2022). A review of the global climate change impacts, adaptation, and sustainable mitigation measures. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 29(28), 42539-42559. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19718-6
  • John J. Mearsheimer (2019). Bound to Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Liberal International Order. International Security, 43(4), 7-50. https://doi.org/10.1162/isec_a_00342
  • James Pamment; Alicia Fjällhed; Martina Smedberg (2023). The ‘Logics’ of Public Diplomacy: In Search of What Unites a Multidisciplinary Research Field. The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, 19(1), 49-83. https://doi.org/10.1163/1871191x-bja10161
  • Unknown Author (2022). The State of Global Learning Poverty: 2022 UpdateThe World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF, USAID, FSDO, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2022, 77 p., Open Access. Population and Development Review, 48(4), 1215-1216. https://doi.org/10.1111/padr.12534