The Foreign Service Journal, September 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2020 87 Cohen does a master- ful job of briskly summing up each administration’s record regarding Africa and placing it in a larger context. In the 1940s and 1950s, before most African nations attained their indepen- dence, FDR, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower mainly dealt with the European powers that had retained their colonies following World War II. During the 1960s, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson cultivated relationships with the emerging nations themselves, against the backdrop of the Cold War. One useful service Cohen renders here is to push back against the assumption that Washington always backed African leaders simply for being anticommunist, regardless of their human rights and governance records. That global contest would, however, overshadow the decisions Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan made regarding relations with the continent in the 1970s and 1980s. Then George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton managed the transition to more country- specific, fraternal dealings with African capitals, while George W. Bush and Barack Obama adapted that approach to the post-9/11 era. Cohen also examines Donald Trump’s record vis-à-vis Africa, but because he finished writing the book in early 2019, that chapter is too thin to draw any meaningful conclusions. (Still, I was surprised to see no allusion to Trump’s racially charged utterances about Africa.) The book then concludes with a set of “Reflections on Successes and Failures.” The only chapter I found disappoint- ing is the one on Bill Clinton, which is unique for beginning and ending with a scath- ing verdict on his perfor- mance. As it happens, the first two of my three years as Cameroon desk officer (1991-1994) overlapped with the final two years of Cohen’s tenure as assistant secretary for African affairs (1989-1993), so I hope I may be forgiven for chal- lenging his assessment. He is, of course, correct that the Clinton administration botched its response to deteriorating conditions in Somalia and Rwanda. But on the other side of the ledger, he omits all mention of a central plank of U.S. policy during the 1990s: the promotion of democratization in the developing world. Astonishingly, the book’s index contains not a single reference to democracy, democratiza- tion, elections or human rights. It does not seem fair to withhold credit where it is due. Overall, however, US Policy Toward Africa is a valuable addition to the litera- ture, with much to offer both seasoned Africa hands and general readers. n Steven Alan Honley, a State Department Foreign Service officer from 1985 to 1997, worked in the Bureau of Central African Affairs from 1991 to 1994. He went on to serve as editor-in-chief of The Foreign Service Journal from 2001 to 2014, and is the author of Future Forward: FSI at 70 —A History of the Foreign Service Institute (Arlington Hall Press, 2017).