Development Assistance and the West’s Changing Security Agenda

Western geo-strategic and national security considerations had historically loomed large in Western policy towards Africa. After the Cold War, Uganda, Ethiopia and Rwanda would not only become privileged partners of donors in the pursuit of global development, but as a result of new threats to Western interests they also became allies in various initiatives to strengthen the national security of Western countries and that of these African countries. This chapter examines the impact of the 9/11 attacks on the US and those which preceded it, growing Western concern with African fragile states seen to threaten Western security, and dangers which were compounded by the phenomenon of Islamic terrorism on the continent. It traces the securitisation of Western aid programmes for Africa and associated rationales, and debates within bilateral donor agencies regarding this change. The chapter also examines some of the major Western security assistance programmes for Africa which were intended to strengthen the security of African states as an essential precondition for development, enhance the continent’s capacity to engage in peacekeeping operations and address the problems posed by its fragile states, all of which enabled Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda to act as Western allies in the war on terrorism in Africa.