No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The Clinton Administration and Africa: A View from Paris, France
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 August 2021
Extract
The Clinton administration’s foreign policy toward Africa arouses strong reactions in France, most notably within the French policymaking establishment. This sentiment is directly linked to the end of the Cold War and the redistribution of power on the African continent. French policymakers commonly believe that the United States seeks to dominate the African continent. Such a representation could be seen as laughable through its excessive character. It is nonetheless maintained by a disparate group of facts and events that, when combined, lead French policymakers to overestimate U.S. impulses. In fact, U.S. African policies are not immune to the uncertainties and contradictions that pervade overall U.S. foreign policy. As insightfully noted by French Minister of Foreign Affairs Hubert Védrine, U.S. foreign policy toward Africa conveys the aspirations of a “hyper-power” that, although lacking a worthy international opponent truly capable of challenging its power, remains incapable of implementing a viable African strategy—in essence conjuring up the much-acclaimed image in Gulliver’s Travels of the giant Gulliver finding himself hamstrung by hundreds of ropes tied by six-inch Lilliputians. An analysis of this policy also indirectly reveals the doubts inherent in France’s own African policy due to the inability of its leaders to accept the constraints of a transformed international system.
- Type
- Views from Abroad
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © African Studies Association 1998
References
Notes
1. For Védrine’s comments, see Le Nouvel Observateur, May 28–June 3, 1998.
2. Quoted by Leymarie Philippe, “Washington à la Conquête d’Espaces Vierges en Afrique,” Le Monde Diplomatique, March 1998.
3. Le Figaro, May 7, 1998.
4. Le Figaro, March 23, 1998.
5. See Claude Wauthier, “Une Sourde Concurrence sur le Continent Africain: Appétits Américains et Compromissions Françaises,” Le Monde Diplomatique, October 1994.
6. Thomas C. Frank, “Vue des Etats-Unis, Cette Impardonnable Exception Française,” Le Monde Diplomatique, April 1998.
7. “La Main de Washington, la Paranoïa de Paris,” New York Times, in Courrier International, no. 338, April 24–30, 1997.
8. See L’Autre Afrique, “L’Afrique vue par les Stratèges Américains,” March 25–31, 1998.
9. Ibid.
10. One needs to note that the rather flattering figure that France can pride itself on is partly the result of the integration of overseas territories into the list of beneficiaries, which has been regularly decreasing since 1995. See Bourmaud, Daniel, “L’Aide Publique Française au Développement: Les Moyens de la Fin?” in Rapport 1998 de l’Observatoire Permanent de la Coopération Française (Paris: Karthala, 1998)Google Scholar.
11. See Brunei Sylvie, “La Poudre Américaine aux Yeux des Africains,”Le Monde, April 18, 1998.
12. See Gérard Prunier, Libération, March 26, 1998.
13. See “Les Esquisses d’une Force Africaine de Maintien de la Paix,” in L’Autre Afrique, November 19–25, 1997.
14. See Le Figaro, March 3, 1998.
15. “Clinton en Afrique du Sud: Du Commerce et des Fâcheries,” Le Figaro, March 27, 1998.
16. “L’Afrique Insoumise,” Le Monde, March 29–30, 1998.
17. See L’Humanité, March 28, 1998; Le Monde, March 29–30, 1998; and Le Figaro, March 28–29, 1998.
18. See Bourmaud, Daniel, “La Politique Africaine de Jacques Chirac: Les Anciens Contre les Modernes,” Modern and Contemporary France 4 (1996): 431–442 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.