© Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg
US National Security Advisor John Bolton
When a press release announced that President Donald Trump's National Security Adviser John Bolton would unveil a new American strategy for Africa,
it raised the question: What was the old one?
From Algeria to Zimbabwe, the U.S. risks losing sway over the 1.2 billion people who inhabit the world's second-most populous continent. Bolton's speech on Thursday acknowledged as much, as he framed the administration's strategic rethink around countering gains made by the U.S.'s primary geopolitical rivals.
"Africa is incredibly important," Bolton said Thursday at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. "If we didn't understand it before, the competition posed by China and Russia and others should highlight that for us."
But much of the strategy Bolton laid out, including counterterrorism and overhauling foreign aid, may result in a more narrow focus on the continent. And the administration's trade initiatives -- Bolton said the U.S. will look for bilateral deals --
wouldn't arrive for years to come.
That means the U.S. could miss investment opportunities in a region with the world's fastest-growing middle class, a continent that will account for half of global population growth by 2050. Led by Ghana and Kenya, African nations are stitching together a trade union designed to bolster intra-Africa commerce. The initiative has a long ways to go, but if it can achieve critical mass, the continent's combined GDP would be almost the size of Germany's.
Comment: Public awareness and outrage may be a case of too little too late. A revolt will handily eliminate those who still have the wherewithal to object.