Trump administration plans economic and military offensive against Africa
By
Thomas Gaist
3 April 2017
Among commenters on African politics the near-total silence of the Trump administration over its plans for the continent has become quite noticeable. Indeed, the US government is maintaining the military-style secrecy being upheld by the Trump regime over its military and political activities in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and elsewhere around the globe.
Despite the relative secrecy, the general outlines of Trump’s Africa policy can nevertheless be deduced from his administration’s opening moves on the continent, when these are understood as the outgrowth of the crisis of American imperialism and the worldwide militarist offensive it has waged since the dissolution of the Soviet Union more than a quarter century ago.
From the outset, the selection of key leadership positions overseeing various US operations on the continent has underscored the hardline corporatist and militarist character of Trump’s agenda in Africa.
Trump has chosen retired US Air Force Colonel Rudolph Atallah to serve as Africa director on the National Security Council (NSC). Attalah was previously director of the US Special Operations Command Sub-Saharan Africa Orientation Course, which prepares US soldiers and government officials for deployment to the region. Trump’s leading choices to head the State Department’s Africa Bureau include Jeff Krill, the former vice president of Kosmos Energy, a company with substantial financial interests throughout West Africa, and retired US Army intelligence officer Charles Snyder.
Its initial military moves have made clear the Trump regime’s determination to intensify the neocolonial African policies of the previous four…