The Good and Bad Continuity of Biden’s New Africa Strategy

The Biden administration’s new U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa, unveiled during Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s recent swing through the continent, reflects little more than a commitment to the status quo. Despite the White House’s attempt to spin it as a “new vision for a 21st Century U.S.-African Partnership,” Africa watchers on and off the continent will note that much remains unchanged, both for good and for ill.

The strategy’s four objectives—foster openness and open societies; deliver democratic and security dividends; advance pandemic recovery and economic opportunity; and support conservation, climate adaption, and a just energy transition—echo the “Four Pillars” of the Obama administration’s 2012 Sub-Saharan Africa strategy, with cosmetic adjustments to allow nods to the Covid-19 pandemic and the heightened importance of climate and energy transitions as agenda items.