The Responsibility to Protect in American Foreign Policy Towards Africa

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.