US and Africa

Writing in the Huffington Post on 28 February 2013, Robert Nolan, editor at the Foreign Policy Association, discusses US policy in Africa in a commentary titled "Hotspot or Hotbed? A Tale of Two Africas." 

He argues there are two competing narratives in American media and policy circles.  The first is Africa as a safe haven for displaced jihadist terrorists bent on harming Western countries like the US.  The second is the economic rise of Africa.

He concludes that by not addressing the realities of the new Africa and its growing importance to the global economy, the US risks alienating a whole generation of Africans who have long held the US in high regard, not to mention missing out on the fruits of a mutually beneficial relationship based on storng economic and security partnerships.