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The Clinton Administration and Africa: A View from Ottawa, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

David R. Black  and
Clement E. Adibe
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Extract

The Clinton administration’s new African policy thrust, combined with the changing contours of Canadian African policy, has brought the two governments’ approaches closer together than ever before. In most fundamental respects, their stated aims are closely congruent: They seek in general to promote stability and progress in Africa, conceived in broadly neo-liberal terms. Beyond these general objectives, however, Washington and Ottawa exhibit differences of emphasis and approach that are interesting given the especially close relationship that has long existed between the two countries. In important ways, Canada’s “kinder, gentler” approach to Africa serves to soften the face of U.S. policy priorities without fundamentally altering them, and in this respect serves as a valuable contributor to the fulfillment of U.S. hegemonic priorities on the continent and around the globe. Canada nonetheless has its own history, habits, and linkages in Africa that, although under strain, still allow it to periodically play a surprisingly prominent role on issues of concern to Africans at this historical moment of continental transformation.

Type
Views from Abroad
Information
African Issues , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , 1998 , pp. 58 - 63
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1998 

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References

Notes

1. Henk, Dan and Metz, Steven, The United States and the Transformation of African Security: The African Crisis Response Initiative and Beyond (Carlisle, Pa.: Strategic Studies Institute Monograph, December 1997), 20 Google Scholar.

2. Ibid.

3. Rice, Susan E., Remarks before the Southern Africa Grantmakers’ Affinity Group—”The African Renaissance” (Washington, D.C., April 30 1998)Google Scholar.

4. Henk and Metz, “The United States and the Transformation of African Security,” p. 1.

5. See Martin, Bill, “Waiting for Oprah and the New US Constituency for Africa,” Review of African Political Economy 75 (1998): 17–20 Google Scholar.

6. See Marais, Hein, “Clinton in South Africa: Another Scramble for Africa,” Southern Africa Report 13, no. 3 (May 1998)Google Scholar.

7. See Hibler, Michelle and Beamish, Rowena, eds., Canadian Development Report 1998: Canadian Corporations and Social Responsibility (Ottawa: North-South Institute, 1998), 160–161 Google Scholar; and David Kilgour (Secretary of State, Latin America and Africa), “West Africa: New Frontier for Canadian Business,” in AfriCan Access Magazine (2nd quarter 1998): 5.

8. Confidential interview with DFAIT official, July 1998.

9. Confidential interview with DFAIT official, July 1998.

10. Rice, “The African Renaissance.”

11. See U.S. Department of Defense, United States Security Strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa (Washington, D.C.: Department of Defense Office of International Security Affairs, August 1995), p. 3 Google Scholar.

12. Henk and Metz, “The United States and the Transformation of African Security,” pp. 11, 41-42, n. 33.

13. Ibid., p. 5.

14. Ibid., p. 23.

15. Ibid.

16. Ibid., p. 24.

17. Ibid, (emphasis in the original).

18. See Reumiller, Ernie, “Canadian Perspectives on African Capacity-Building,” in Resolute Partners: Building Peacekeeping Capacity in Africa, ed. Malan, Mark (Halfway House, South Africa: Institute for Security Studies, February 1998)Google Scholar.

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20. See Dishonored Legacy: The Lessons of Somalia: Report of the Commission of Inquiry Into the Deployment of Canadian Forces to Somalia (Ottawa: Canada Communications Group, 1997) (report of the Commission of Inquiry into military abuses and cover-up in Somalia).

21. On the Canadian initiative, see, e.g., Cooper, Andrew, “Between Will and Capabilities: Canada and the Zaire/Great Lakes Initiative,” in Worthwhile Initiatives? Canadian Mission-Oriented Diplomacy, eds. Cooper, Andrew F. and Hayes, Geoffrey (Toronto: Irwin Publishing, 1998)Google Scholar.

22. See, e.g., Suzanne Daley, “Clinton’s Journey to Two Africas,” Mail and Guardian, March 20–26, 1998 (reprinted from the New York Times).

23. See Dobell, W.M., “A Partner in Africa? Canada and Post-Apartheid South Africa,” Canadian Foreign Policy, 5, no. 2 (Winter 1998): 64–67 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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25. See David Black, “Canada, the Commonwealth and Nigeria: The Limits of Ethical Multilateralism,” in Cooper and Hayes, eds., Worthwhile Initiatives?

26. See, specifically, Reumiller, “Canadian Perspectives on African Capacity-Building,” p. 68.

27. Cf.Smock, David R. and Crocker, Chester A., eds., African Conflict Resolution: The U.S. Role in Peacemaking. (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1995)Google Scholar; and Henk and Metz, The United States and the Transformation of African Security.

28. See, e.g., Pratt, Cranford, “DFAIT’s Takeover bid of CIDA,” Canadian Foreign Policy 5, no. 2 (1998): 1–13 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

29. Pratt, “Humane Internationalism: Its Significance and Variants.”