U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa in the Post-Unipolar Moment: Strategic Competition, Selective Engagement, and the Limits of Liberal Internationalism

Examining the evolution of United States foreign policy toward sub-Saharan Africa across four presidential administrations—from George W. Bush to Joe Biden—this study situates policy shifts within broader transformations in the international order. Drawing on hegemonic stability theory, liberal internationalism, and African International Relations Theory, it analyses how successive U.S. administrations have navigated tensions between democratic promotion and strategic partnerships with authoritarian regimes, how Sino-American competition has reshaped the terms of U.S.–Africa engagement, and why institutional incoherence persists among AFRICOM's security mission, USAID's development mandate, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation's governance conditionality. Through comparative policy analysis of National Security Strategy documents, Congressional hearings, and AFRICOM budget data, the study develops an African-centred critique of U.S. foreign policy that moves beyond Washington's self-representation to assess its structural effects on African political economies and governance trajectories. The findings reveal a pattern of selective engagement driven by counter-terrorism priorities and great power competition, with democracy promotion increasingly subordinated to security imperatives.