President Obama is due to visit Kenya and Ethiopia later in July 2015. While the media all over goes crazy celebrating this visit, it is certain that it raises more questions than answers. Fundamentally the question remains, will Obama’s visit change the peripheral place of Africa in the US foreign policy? My conclusion is No, it will not.
Obama’s foreign policy has been characterized by a focus on Asia not Africa as an engine for global economic growth. He has placed a major focus on the long term US foreign policy concerns in checking the rise of China economically and militarily and Russia as it impacts NATO (western Europe) and the former Soviet republics. Little emphasis has been placed on Africa.