Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Briefing: NATO Claims Africa as Its ‘Southern Neighbourhood’
No Cold War
09 Nov 2022
Briefing: NATO Claims Africa as Its ‘Southern Neighbourhood’
A British soldier (right) gives instructions during a joint training with Kenya Defence Forces at Archer’s Post in Samburu County on October 7, 2020 (Photo: Joseph Kanyi/Nation Media Group)

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization claims the African continent as its "neighborhood." NATO is certainly not the defensive organization that it claims to be. Expanding imperialism is always its goal.

This article was originally published in No Cold War.

In August 2022, the United States published a new foreign policy strategy aimed at Africa. The 17-page document featured 10 mentions of China and Russia combined, including a pledge to ‘counter harmful activities by the [People’s Republic of China], Russia, and other foreign actors’ on the continent, but did not once mention the term ‘sovereignty’. Although US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has stated that Washington ‘will not dictate Africa’s choices’, African governments have reported facing ‘patronising bullying’ from NATO member states to take their side in the war in Ukraine. As global tensions rise, the US and its allies have signalled that they view the continent as a battleground to wage their New Cold War against China and Russia.

A New Monroe Doctrine?

At its annual summit in June, NATO named Africa along with the Middle East as ‘NATO’s southern neighbourhood’. On top of this, NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg ominously referred to ‘Russia and China’s increasing influence in our southern neighbourhood’ as a ‘challenge’. The following month, the outgoing commander of AFRICOM, General Stephen J Townsend, referred to Africa as ‘NATO’s southern flank’. These comments are disturbingly reminiscent of the neocolonial attitude espoused by the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, in which the US claimed Latin America as its ‘backyard’.

This paternalistic view of Africa appears to be widely held in Washington. In April, the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Countering Malign Russian Influence Activities in Africa Act by a vote of 415-9. The bill, which aims to punish African governments for not aligning with US foreign policy on Russia, has been widely condemned across the continent for disrespecting the sovereignty of African nations, with South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor calling it ‘absolutely disgraceful’.

The efforts by the US and Western countries to draw Africa into their geopolitical conflicts raise serious concerns: namely, will the US and NATO weaponise their vast military presence on the continent to achieve their aims?

AFRICOM: Protecting US and NATO’s Hegemony

In 2007, the United States established its Africa Command (AFRICOM) ‘in response to our expanding partnerships and interests in Africa’. In just 15 years, AFRICOM has established at least 29 military bases on the continent as part of an extensive network which includes more than 60 outposts and access points in at least 34 countries – over 60 percent of the nations on the continent.

Despite Washington’s rhetoric of promoting democracy and human rights in Africa, in reality, AFRICOM aims to secure US hegemony over the continent. AFRICOM’s stated objectives include ‘protecting US interests’ and ‘maintaining superiority over competitors’ in Africa. In fact, the creation of AFRICOM was motivated by the concerns of ‘those alarmed by China’s expanding presence and influence in the region’.

From the outset, NATO was involved in the endeavour, with the original proposal put forward by then Supreme Allied Commander of NATO James L Jones, Jr. On an annual basis, AFRICOM conducts training exercises focused on enhancing the ‘interoperability’ between African militaries and ‘US and NATO special operations forces’.

The destructive nature of the US and NATO’s military presence in Africa was exemplified in 2011 when – ignoring the African Union’s opposition – the US and NATO launched their catastrophic military intervention in Libya to remove the government of Muammar Gaddafi. This regime change war destroyed the country, which had previously scored the highest among African nations on the UN Human Development Index. Over a decade later, the principal achievements of the intervention in Libya have been the return of slave markets to the country, the entry of thousands of foreign fighters, and unending violence.

In the future, will the US and NATO invoke the ‘malign influence’ of China and Russia as a justification for military interventions and regime change in Africa?

Africa Rejects a New Cold War

At this year’s UN General Assembly, the African Union firmly rejected the coercive efforts of the US and Western countries to use the continent as a pawn in their geopolitical agenda. ‘Africa has suffered enough of the burden of history’, stated Chairman of the African Union and President of Senegal Macky Sall; ‘it does not want to be the breeding ground of a new Cold War, but rather a pole of stability and opportunity open to all its partners, on a mutually beneficial basis’. Indeed, the drive for war offers nothing to the peoples of Africa in their pursuit of peace, climate change adaptation, and development.

NATO in Africa
NATO
AFRICOM
imperialism

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles. Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Centering Imperialism in Libya: Implications for the African Continent
Essam Elkorghli
Centering Imperialism in Libya: Implications for the African Continent
31 May 2023
Libya exemplifies the terrorism inflicted upon African nations by US/NATO imperialism.
Sudan Conflict Provides Rationale for Further Imperialist Militarization
Abayomi Azikiwe
Sudan Conflict Provides Rationale for Further Imperialist Militarization
10 May 2023
The United States deploys naval warships and drones after creating the conditions for destabilization in Sudan.
US/EU/NATO Meet with Somaliland Secessionists
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
US/EU/NATO Meet with Somaliland Secessionists
26 April 2023
As Somaliland forces continue to fire on Somali nationalists in Laasaanood and the surrounding region, Sool, Sanaag and Cayn, US/EU/NATO offici
AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #46
Black Alliance for Peace US Out of Africa Network
AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #46
26 April 2023
The impact of the U.S./NATO destruction of the Libyan state is still being felt.
Ilhan Omar Is Not Mama Africa
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Ilhan Omar Is Not Mama Africa
01 February 2023
The new Speaker of the House announced he will remove Congresswoman Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee.
AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #44
US Out of Africa Network
AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #44
25 January 2023
The Black Alliance for Peace AFRICOM Watch Bulletin discusses the first session of the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent and prov
If You Wouldn’t Ask Hannibal Lecter to Stop Mass Atrocities, Don’t Ask “The International Community”
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
If You Wouldn’t Ask Hannibal Lecter to Stop Mass Atrocities, Don’t Ask “The International Community”
04 January 2023
The hope that the U.S. will intervene anywhere in the world for humanitarian reasons is misguided in the extreme.
U.S.-Based Africans Organize Events to Counter Biden Administration’s U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit
Julie Varughese
U.S.-Based Africans Organize Events to Counter Biden Administration’s U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit
14 December 2022
The African diaspora gathered for events in Washington DC to counter the claims of U.S. concern for African nations before the U.S.
Invitations for a Seat at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit Table Should Not Only Be Rejected, the Table Needs Turning Over!
Black Alliance For Peace
Invitations for a Seat at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit Table Should Not Only Be Rejected, the Table Needs Turning Over!
14 December 2022
The 2022 U.S.
AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #43
US Out of Africa Network
AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #43
23 November 2022
The Black Alliance for Peace AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #43 includes an interview with a representative of the Revolutionary Socialist League of Ke

More Stories


  • Black Agenda Radio June 2, 2023
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio June 2, 2023
    02 Jun 2023
    African journalists strive to decolonize their work, and the struggle to free the Pendleton 2.
  • The Pendleton 2: They Stood Up
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    The Pendleton 2: They Stood Up
    02 Jun 2023
    The Pendleton 2: They Stood Up is a new documentary about political prisoners held in Indiana.
  • Breaking The Colonial Grip On African Journalism
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Breaking The Colonial Grip On African Journalism
    02 Jun 2023
    Decolonizing African journalism.
  • Robert F. Kennedy Jr.:  Sheepdogging and Liberal Fantasy
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Sheepdogging and Liberal Fantasy
    31 May 2023
    There is an understandable yearning for a progressive president. But like dreams of happily ever after endings, the fantasy is just that.
  • TRANSCRIPT: The Roots and Consequences of African Underdevelopment, Walter Rodney, 1979
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    TRANSCRIPT: The Roots and Consequences of African Underdevelopment, Walter Rodney, 1979
    31 May 2023
    In May 1979, the Center for Afro-American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles hosted a symposium titled The Political Economy of the Black World. We are publishing, for the first…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us