The Foreign Service Journal, September 2022

34 SEPTEMBER 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL tent head-of-state engagement, treat Africa as a strategic prior- ity for the United States and give a dynamic boost to mutually beneficial U.S. engagement on the continent. What’s At Stake One need only look at the contemporary global issues that have dominated 2022 to understand the critical role the African continent plays today and how it will shape the future. South African scientists’ extensive and sophisticated genomic surveil- lance system was the first to identify and detect the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in a critical effort in the global fight to stop the spread of the virus. Africa represents 28 percent of the United Nations membership and has a significant voice in geo- politics. This was on display as only half of Africa’s 54 member states voted to rebuke Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and most of the remaining countries abstained. As the world assesses its progress and makes new commit- ments in advance of the 27th Conference of Parties to the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP 27) to be hosted by Egypt on behalf of the African continent in November 2022, Africa is clas- sified by the United Nations Environmental Program as the most vulnerable region in the world to the effects of climate change, and it is also home to mineral resources like lithium, cobalt, palladium and others that are powering the green revolution and electric vehicles in the race for sustainability solutions. The staggering demographic boom transforming Africa’s TRADELAWCENTRENPC (TRALAC)