Post-Cold War Foreign Policy of the U.S. in West Africa: A Case Study Of Ghana and Nigeria.

Abstract

U.S. foreign policy formulation and implementation is one of the complex political processes in America. Post-Cold War foreign policy of the U.S. towards the West African sub-region can be understood in the broad context of U.S. policy towards Africa. West African states were used as pawns during the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The sub-region is still of strategic importance to America in the Post-Cold War era. Extant literature on U.S. foreign policy towards Africa focused on continuity. And this study seeks to find out in what ways the foreign policy of the U.S. in West Africa has undergone change after the end of the Cold War. Thus, it investigates the parameters or trends of change in Post-Cold War U.S. foreign policy in the sub-region. Also, it discovers the exact interests of U.S. and the strategies adopted by America to halt the creeping rise of China in West Africa. Data collected from semi-structured interview and literatures were interpreted and analysed within the theoretical framework adopted by this study. That is Offensive Realism. The study found out that the parameters or trends of change in Post-Cold War U.S. policy border around ideological, economic and security interests but the two major changes are economic and security interests. The study also revealed that the U.S. are using propaganda tools, soft diplomacy and hard power to halt the creeping rise of China’s influence in West Africa. The study claims that U.S. foreign policy toward the sub-region changes on the basis current happenings in the international system in order to suit its interests