Profs & Pints DC: A Progressive Approach to Africa

Profs and Pints DC presents: “A Progressive Approach to Africa,” an analysis of current U.S. policies and a call for new ones that help rather than harm, with Elizabeth Schmidt, professor emeritus of history at Loyola University Maryland and author of Foreign Intervention in Africa after the Cold War.

After four years of U.S. disengagement with Africa under Donald Trump, President Biden has told the leaders of African nations that the United States is “all in on Africa’s future.” His administration has pledged reinvestment in Africa to promote development, relieve hunger, and fight terrorism on the African continent at a time when China’s investment there is outstripping our own.

But what, exactly, should our nation’s approach to Africa be? How can we effectively engage in counterterrorism there while also promoting democracy and economic growth? What policies should we be abandoning as failures, and what kinds of policies should emerge in their place?