{"id":27019,"date":"2024-05-09T04:53:24","date_gmt":"2024-05-09T09:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=27019"},"modified":"2024-05-09T04:53:33","modified_gmt":"2024-05-09T09:53:33","slug":"hard-times-for-us-soft-power-projection-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=27019","title":{"rendered":"Hard Times for US Soft Power Projection in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The United States\u2019 heavy handed attempts to force African countries to cut ties with Russia may be backfiring, according to one observer.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

New polling<\/u><\/a> from Gallup suggests Beijing is increasingly gaining favor across Africa while perceptions of Washington fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data shows China pulling ahead of the US with 58% of respondents holding a positive view of the country.<\/strong> The figure was driven in large part by improvements in the perception of Beijing in Western African nations, where China has invested heavily in infrastructure projects as part of its Belt and Road Initiative. The country\u2019s approval rating stands at a stellar 80% in Cote d\u2019Ivoire, for example, 77% in Guinea and 67% in Benin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia also saw an improvement in perceptions of its leadership<\/em> with its median approval rating rising above 75% in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Chad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expert Linwood Tauheed suggested the decline in the United States\u2019 favorability may be a response to heavy handed attempts by the Biden administration to convince countries to cut ties with Russia<\/strong> amid its campaign to liberate subjects of the Donetsk and Luhansk People\u2019s Republics in the Donbass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tauheed joined Sputnik\u2019s The Critical Hour program Wednesday<\/u><\/a> to discuss the development and Washington\u2019s historical policy towards the African continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis idea of the US wanting to convince these African countries to embrace democratic norms is one thing that certainly leaps out of the page with the US, of course, violating democratic norms or at least the theory of democracy everywhere it goes, and nowhere more so than in Africa,\u201d said Tauheed, the director of the Center for Economic Information at the University of Missouri at Kansas City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent analysis<\/u><\/a> by Responsible Statecraft found that 15 African military officers who received training in the United States took part in 12 recent coups across the continent. The US has been criticized for its role<\/u><\/a> in overthrowing a number of prominent historical African leaders such as Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNiger and Burkina Faso and Mali \u2013 the Sahel countries \u2013 have forced the French out,\u201d<\/em> he added, noting several West African countries\u2019 expulsion of French troops in recent months. \u201cAnd now, the US is also being forced out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne wonders why the US mainstream media is surprised by the fact that the African countries want these countries, these exploiters, to leave,\u201d said Tauheed. \u201cConnecting it in a sense with\u2026 soft power \u2013 soft power is defined as the ability to co-opt someone else, that is to turn their interest into your interests.<\/strong> The idea of soft power, which is what the US is saying it is projecting, is simply another word for hard power in a soft shell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Host Garland Nixon suggested the US\u2019 purported defense of democracy is cover for other motivations, quoting from a Politico article that noted, \u201cUS officials have tried to maintain diplomatic relations with those countries \u2013 many of which have vast natural resources \u2013 in an effort to one day resume military and other financial support.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think if you dig below the surface, you can learn a lot from that,\u201d<\/em> he suggested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States has increasingly found itself in a global battle for resources as it competes with China in the development of artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, and other technologies. Rare-earth magnets<\/u><\/a> are one particular component that has drawn attention in recent years as the United States bans the use of Chinese magnets in US military equipment. The race to develop Western replacements puts pressure on the United States to lock down supplies of various rare earth elements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The imperative of combating terrorism has represented another aspect of the United States\u2019 soft power pitch in recent decades, with the country attempting to maintain a foothold in the Sahel under the pretense of fighting armed groups such as Boko Haram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYet in the decades that they’ve been there, terrorism has increased,\u201d said Tauheed. \u201cThe US and France are supposedly there to eliminate those groups so that the countries can engage in democratic activities but, in fact, the activities in those groups are increasing. One wonders if it’s to the benefit of the US or France to allow those groups to continue to multiply so that they can stay there, as the article says, to take advantage of natural resources.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some African countries have instead opted to partner with Russia\u2019s Wagner Group<\/a>, a private mercenary organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

sputnikglobe<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United States\u2019 heavy handed attempts to force African countries to cut ties with Russia may be backfiring, according to one observer. New polling from Gallup suggests Beijing is increasingly gaining favor across Africa while perceptions of Washington fall. The data shows China pulling ahead of the US with 58% of respondents holding a positive view of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":27020,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1677,1382,2388,7289,1770,10442],"class_list":["post-27019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-africa","tag-china","tag-infrastructure","tag-investment","tag-russia","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27019"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27021,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27019\/revisions\/27021"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}