United States Policy Towards Africa: Lessons Learned

AfricaSource
Mar 27, 2025

Prioritizing access to critical minerals will require prioritizing Africa

By
Benjamin Mossberg

Access to critical minerals is an urgent national security issue. The United States must view investments in African energy, mineral, and mining—key to securing this access—with similar importance.

Africa
Energy & Environment

United States Policy Towards Africa: Lessons Learned

AfricaSource
Mar 21, 2025

In the scramble for Africa’s critical minerals, the West must not abandon the ESG agenda

By
Zainab Usman and Rama Yade

As this race for minerals and metals critical for the energy transition heats up, both companies and governments must not abandon environmental, social, and governance principles in Africa.

Africa
Energy & Environment

United States Policy Towards Africa: Lessons Learned

AfricaSource
Mar 20, 2025

If the international community wants to curb fossil fuel emissions, it must make Africa a serious clean energy offer

By
Neil Ford

Before the international community asks African countries to leave undeveloped fossil fuel resources in the ground, it must make them an offer of clean energy financing—one substantial enough to fund Africa’s current and future appetite for electricity.

Africa
Energy & Environment

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United States Policy Towards Africa: Lessons Learned

African creatives
Aug 29, 2024

ESPN Host and two-time WNBA All-Star Chiney Ogwumike champions African diaspora engagement through sports and media 

Ogwumike is a Nigerian-American powerhouse redefining the intersection of sports and media and highlighting the important role of the diaspora in shaping the future of the African continent.

Read More

United States Policy Towards Africa: Lessons Learned

African creatives
Jun 7, 2024

Cultural curator Abdul Karim Abdullah elevates African culture from the Bronx to Ghana 

By
Africa Center

As founder and chief executive officer of AfroFuture Fest and Culture Management Group, Abdul Karim Abdullah is creating opportunities for the diaspora to celebrate African culture at a festival in West Africa.

Africa
Economy & Business

United States Policy Towards Africa: Lessons Learned

African creatives
May 1, 2024

Creative visionary Elroy Fillis-Bell showcases the impact of dance across the continent 

By
Africa Center

Joburg Ballet Chief Executive Officer Elroy Fillis-Bell is an advocate for the arts and believes that dance provides a unique way for communities to engage

Africa
Economy & Business

Content

United States Policy Towards Africa: Lessons Learned

Event Recap

Sep 21, 2011

United States Policy Towards Africa: Lessons Learned

By Adrienne Chuck

On September 21, the Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, in partnership with the Constituency for Africa (CFA), hosted a panel discussion on US foreign policy towards Africa, featuring five former US assistant secretaries of state for African Affairs as part of CFA’s 2011 Ronald H. Brown African Affairs Series, which brings together a range of […]

Africa United States and Canada

Event Recap

Sep 14, 2011

A Discussion on Recent Developments in Somalia and Puntland

By Adrienne Chuck

On September 14, the Ansari Africa Center hosted a briefing by Kadir Abdirahman Mohamud, special envoy of the President of Puntland State of Somalia, on recent developments in Somalia in general and the autonomous Puntland region in particular. Kadir Mohamud’s prepared remarks were followed by a discussion with experts from the U.S. government, think tanks, […]

Somalia

New Atlanticist

Aug 26, 2011

Libya and Africa: The reset

By J. Peter Pham

With most of the Libyan capital now falling under the control of forces aligned with Libya’s Transitional National Council (TNC), greater time and attention can now be devoted to pondering the many questions which have been pushed to one side when the outcome of the conflict was still uncertain. These issues include legitimate concerns about […]

NATO North Africa

New Atlanticist

Aug 5, 2011

Al-Qaeda’s North African franchise moves south

By J. Peter Pham

British and Italian officials are checking a video received Thursday by Agence France-Presse which, if authenticated, will confirm not only the fate of two Westerners abducted in Nigeria in May, but the worrisome fact that al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), has now extended its reach into Nigeria.  While the Foreign Office […]

Africa Extremism

New Atlanticist

Aug 1, 2011

Somalia: Beyond the Famine

By Peter Pham

Today Somalia is not only the world’s most spectacular case of a failed state—it has, after all, been more than twenty years since the benighted land has had anything resembling a central government—but, thanks to the worst drought in six decades, it is what the United Nations refugee agency has described as the “worst humanitarian […]

Somalia

New Atlanticist

Jul 11, 2011

South Sudan: Free at Last! Now What?

By Peter Pham

The birth this past weekend of the Republic of South Sudan as the world’s newest independent state is, in many respects, a triumph for the Atlantic community’s diplomatic efforts in general and United States leadership in particular.  The acceptance of the possibility of secession was the central feature of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) […]

East Africa

Event Recap

Jun 6, 2011

Africa in the 21st Century and the Next Chapter in U.S.-Africa Relations

On June 6, 2011, the Michael S. Ansari Africa Center hosted H.E. Ali Bongo Ondimba, President of the Gabonese Republic, at the Atlantic Council. President Bongo gave a keynote speech in which he discussed the changing face of Africa in the 21st century, highlighting especially the reforms which have helped make Gabon an emerging country, […]

Africa
AQIM

New Atlanticist

May 2, 2011

Al Qaeda’s franchises after Osama Bin Laden

By J. Peter Pham

The death of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at the hands of Navy SEALs brings to a close a chapter that began more than fifteen years ago when the terrorist group declared war on the United States. As President Barack Obama noted in his address to the nation, “Justice has been done.” While pundits […]

Africa Extremism

New Atlanticist

Apr 21, 2011

Securing North Africa’s oasis of stability

By J. Peter Pham

As the cloud of uncertainty continues to hover North Africa—with the ultimate outcomes of the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt still to be determined and unrest spreading in Algeria, especially in the Kabylie region, to say nothing of the fate of the revolt in Libya—it is somewhat befuddling that the Obama administration has not done […]

North & West Africa Sahel

Report

Nov 30, 2010

Advancing U.S., African, and Global Interests: Security and Stability in the West African Maritime Domain

By John Raidt and Kristen E. Smith

The Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center and On The Horizon Project have officially released a landmark report on the rising importance of U.S. national security interests in West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea, entitled: “Advancing U.S., African, and Global Interests: Security and Stability in the West Africa Maritime Domain.” Download the PDF

Maritime Security North & West Africa
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Experts

Fellow

Sudeep Kanungo

Nonresident Senior Fellow

GeoTech Center

Africa Energy & Environment

European Leadership Accelerator Participant

Pauline Deschryver

Senior Manager, DTEK Group

Millennium Leadership Program

Africa Central Europe

Staff

Will Mortenson

Program Assistant

Freedom and Prosperity Center

Democratic Transitions Latin America

Fellow

Priya Pillai

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Africa Conflict

Fellow

Santiago Villa

Nonresident Journalist Fellow

Global China Hub

Africa China

Fellow

Gbemisola Abudu

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Africa Center

Africa Nigeria
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