Map 0.1. Africa, 2018. (Map by Philip Schwartzberg, Meridian Mapping, Minneapolis.)
Map 0.2. North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, 2018. (Map by Philip Schwartzberg, Meridian Mapping, Minneapolis.)
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Outsiders and Africa
Political and Military Engagement on the Continent (1991–2017)
AFRICA IS A continent that is often misunderstood. Misleading stereotypes smooth over differences among the continent’s fifty-four countries, resulting in oversimplifications and distortions. During the periods of decolonization (1956–75) and the Cold War (1945–91), discussions of Africa evoked images of poverty, corruption, and communist subversion. African nationalists, who were viewed as threatening to Western interests, were dismissed by many as communists controlled by external powers. During the first post–Cold War decade (1991–2001), images of brutal civil wars, and their expansion into regional conflagrations, dominated media portrayals of the continent. In the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the presence of terrorists in Africa—real and imagined—became the new bogeyman.1
As is the case with many stereotypes, there is a grain of truth in these simplistic understandings. Poverty, corruption, and violent conflicts have devastated many African countries. Less well known is the fact that many of the challenges facing the continent today are rooted in colonial political and economic practices, in Cold War alliances, and in attempts by outsiders to influence African political and economic systems during the decolonization and postindependence periods. Although conflicts in Africa emerged from local issues, external political and military interventions altered their dynamics and rendered them more lethal.
This book provides a new framework for thinking about foreign intervention in Africa, its purposes, and its consequences. It is not intended for specialists. It does not advance new theories, present the results of recent primary research, or provide a detailed survey of current literature. Its target audience includes policymakers, humanitarian and human rights workers, students, and the general reading public. Its purpose is pedagogical, and the main points are illustrated with case studies synthesized from previously published work. The book’s format minimizes footnoting in favor of Suggested Reading sections at the conclusion of each chapter. This approach allows readers to follow the outlines of the argument without the distraction of footnotes and yet benefit from the direction of bibliographic essays. The recommended readings are limited to sources in English; most of the articles, reports, and documents are readily available online.
This book is the companion to an earlier work, Foreign Intervention in Africa: From the Cold War to the War on Terror (Cambridge University Press, 2013). Both volumes elucidate the role of outside powers in the political and economic crises that plague Africa today. The earlier volume focuses on foreign political and military intervention in Africa during the periods of decolonization and the Cold War, when the most significant intervention came from outside the continent. Intervention during those periods involved the former colonial powers (France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Portugal), as well as the Cold War powers (the United States, the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China, and Cuba).2 External support for repressive regimes that served internal elites and outside interests and stole the people’s patrimony laid the foundations for numerous post–Cold War conflicts, which in turn attracted further foreign intervention. The present volume investigates external political and military intervention in Africa during the quarter century following the Cold War (1991–2017), when neighboring states and subregional, regional, and global organizations and networks joined extracontinental powers in support of diverse forces in the war-making and peace-building processes.3 During this period, the Cold War paradigm as justification for intervention was replaced by two new ones: response to instability, with the corollary of responsibility to protect, and the war on terror. These paradigms are developed more fully in chapter 2.
Historical Background: Decolonization and the Cold War
The following assessment of decolonization and the Cold War in Africa establishes the basis for understanding the conflicts that troubled the continent in their aftermath. During these overlapping periods, which spanned the years 1956 to 1991, European imperial powers and Cold War superpowers struggled to control African decolonization. As popular forces challenged the existing order, external powers intervened to impose or support African regimes that catered to their political and economic interests. Former colonial powers and the United States tended to support regimes that opposed communism and left colonial economic relationships intact. They often confused radical nationalism with communism, imagining Soviet manipulation where none existed. Western patronage was often based on the willingness of local actors to serve as Cold War allies and regional policemen, providing military bases for Western use and thwarting radical movements among their neighbors. With fewer means at its disposal and less intrinsic interest in the continent, the Soviet Union tended to increase its presence in response to escalated Western and, to a lesser extent, Chinese involvement. It supported movements and regimes that declared themselves in favor of scientific socialism and a Soviet-style model of development—regardless of their internal practices—as well as radical nationalist regimes that were shunned by the West. Although