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FOUR Congress and Africa’s Constituency THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AFRICA GROWTH AND OPPORTUNITY ACT AND THE INTERSECTION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN AND BUSINESS INTERESTS William G. Jones Africa’s prominence as a key region in U.S. foreign policy continues. In February 2008 President George W. Bush made a trip to Africa to highlight his administration’s commitment. In March 2006, the Bush administration announced the first regional military command dedicated solely to U.S. national security interests in Africa. The command was to be known as africom. The new command’s purpose was to support African nations’ efforts to limit the spread of radical militant Islamism and al Qaeda while increasing professionalism and capacity of Africa’s military. Some foreign policy analysts see the effort as serving the dual purpose of protecting and advancing U.S. economic interests. President Barack Obama has made two trips to Africa. In June 2009, he visited Egypt to address the Muslim world and in July 2009 to deliver an address focused mainly on sub-Saharan Africa . This development comes with the background of an emerging new era in U.S. and Africa foreign policymaking. The era is post–Civil Rights, post–Southern Africa liberation, and post–Cold War. New competitors have taken the stage to challenge both European and U.S. hegemony over strategic natural and human resources in Africa. Asian powerhouses such as China, Japan, and India are more substantial competitors than in the past. European nations have focused on retrenchment of their relationship with Africa as they consider the needs of their emerging federation, the European Union (eu). African oil has grown as a key supply source for the world energy market for industrialized nations as Middle East oil has be- 93 Rise to Institutional Global Power Positions 94 come problematic. None of these circumstances is more important than the internally generated political developments in Africa. Some African nations have experienced instability caused by dictatorship, economic stagnation , insurrections fueled by neocolonialism, and democracy movements. African nations have intensified their expressions of discontent with the current international finance systems, and others have intensified efforts to form a strong African continental federation as expressed in the African Union. Since the end of the Cold War, promoters of the World Trade Organization (wto) have sought the region’s participation, and Africa has increased its interest in fair trade. In this context the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (agoa) emerged. A little over a decade earlier, in 1995, the U.S. Congress experienced a resurgent interest in Africa. In 1995 Congress voted down an amendment by Representative Hastings aimed at increasing aid to Africa by $173 million . Between 1996 and 1998, the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act began to take form as one of the most significant African policy initiatives in the post–civil rights, post–Southern African liberation, and post–Cold War era. AGOA served to support U.S. economic and trade policy toward Africa. The act was passed in Congress and was signed into law by President Clinton on May 18, 2000. This foreign policy legislation has been expanded and extended through 2015. The development of the act embodied several dilemmas faced by African American politicians and Congress in a post–civil rights and post– Cold War era. The resurgent interest in Africa has been framed as a response to the growing influence of African American members of Congress and voters. It has been framed as a matter of business interest in expanding trade and managing markets. Also, agoa may have been a response to rising concerns from citizens and states on the African continent over neocolonial trade regimes, super debt, seething poverty, and disease. These concerns were voiced in forums such as the wto’s Uruguay Meeting that resulted in an agreement signed in 1994. This chapter examines the behavior of members’ of Congress in foreign policymaking related to the agoa. It examines the role of race and business interest as competing, conflicting, and consolidating influences. The theoretical framework for this study is a contemporary work centered on race, authored by Robert Smith. In We Have No Leaders, Smith is certain that white supremacy remains at the core of racial politics in the post–civil rights era. The influence of race in Congress and American politics is an important focus of the book. Smith extends David Easton’s system model by using Harry Scoble’s theory to consider various responses to [18.221.146.223] Project MUSE (2024-04-18 14:03...

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