Research idea
This research is conceived to understand and explain the
accommodation of growing US interest in Central Africa in relation to two
elements: Cameroon's strategic position and Cameroon's political history. It
will have to explore how Cameroon came under the US world empire building,
confronting other powers in the sub-region, and having Cameroon as a strategic
partner (proxy) in the sub-region. Our topic is: Cameroon in Post
9/11 [2001 terrorist attacks] US Policy toward Central Africa.
Interest and Justification
Cameroon is located in the very coveted Gulf of Guinea. This
gulf had been a center of interest as a gold mine and a source of slaves for
the Americas in past centuries. In recent years, it is a center of oil, nickel
and other minerals, as well as timber, cocoa and rubber. It is therefore of
little surprise that this study focuses on such a center of attraction. Our
interest to the study of this area came from personal observation of a somewhat
shuttle diplomacy that has been going on between the US and Cameroon for some
time now. The question that came to our mind was `why should the US become so
active in Cameroon when it used to be the work of the French'?
Such a study has many justifications. Academically, it should
provide researchers of policy analysis a frame of reading Cameroon US
relations. It should also provide students of Central African affairs,
especially in relation to the US the lenses through which to read ongoing
events in the sub-region. This work is also policy relevant because it should
provide policy makers enough information and choices in formulating and
conducting foreign policy decisions. This refers particularly to Cameroonian
decision-makers.
Objectives
It is necessary to clarify what we want to achieve at the end
of the paper. The goals we want to achieve through this study could be grouped
into four categories.
1. Explicate the place of Cameroon in the sub-region of
Central Africa.
2. Explain the changes that have taken place in US foreign policy
since 9/11.
3. explain the role of energy resources and the fight against
terrorism as the principal paradigms of US action, as well as the role of
ideas, beliefs and bureaucracies in US policy in the sub-region in particular
and the continent in general.
4. Understand the reaction of Cameroonian authorities in the face
of these phenomena, while proposing possible courses of action.
Limits
This paper is limited to studying certain aspects of foreign
policy that relate to our topic. Specific limits are set in three areas;
geography, history and perspective. With relation to space, this study is
limited to the two countries of the US and Cameroon, where Cameroon is studied
in the general context of its place in Africa, especially Central Africa to US
policy-makers. This does not mean that the general world context will not be
evoked. It will be done, especially the implication of France and China in
Cameroonian geopolitics. The second limit that relates to history sets this
paper as focusing on post-9/11 relations, though drawing from post-Cold War
years. This limit is important from the point of view of the major changes that
have taken place in Cameroon US relations particularly and Africa US relations
in general. The juxtaposition of those two dates will help us have a clear
reading of the implications of 9/11. As for the question of perspective, it is
necessary to specify here that this paper will study Cameroon US relations
particularly from the US perspective. This is because it is the goal of the
researcher to discover how the US perceives Cameroon after 9/11. In the same
vein, we will not catalogue all the changes that have occurred in those
relations within the time range. We will dwell mainly with `high policy'
issues. This gets us away from a particularly diplomatic history to offer a
holistic foreign policy reading of relations between the two countries.
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