When Nick Checker, the State Department’s Senior Bureau Official for African Affairs, recently made a statement expounding on what an “America First” agenda means in Africa, he promised “insight and clarity.” On the positive side of the ledger, he offered an admirably straightforward explanation of a basic proposition that has too often been avoided as if it were in poor taste. The United States’ engagements in Africa, and indeed around the world, are guided by the pursuit of U.S. interests. Our expectation is that interlocuters are similarly motivated by their own interests, and progress is made in areas of overlapping or complementary objectives. It’s hardly a revelation, but it is a welcome shedding of the pretense that the United States’ competitors are out for themselves while we are not, or that Africa is a venue for something fundamentally different from basic statecraft.
