I'm currently taking an badass foreign policy class at the University of Washington, proffed by Aseem Prakash, and had to write a brief on short-term and long-term foreign policy development between the United States and South Africa with regard to three policy areas. I choose to focus on the following.
- 21st century Energy
- USA and Bush co. defaulting on the Millenium Fund and 2/3 of Bill Clinton's tireless foreign policy work on reducing poverty
- The rising political tensions in Zimbabwe and what policy the United States should adopt in accordance with South Africa as Zimbabwe's greatest ally.
The repulsive stain of Apartheid has left its discoloration all over South African society, most notably in the escalating economic disparity between the predominately white upper class and black lower class. It is a rift that is now perceived in the United States, where failed Republican trickle-down economic policy vies once again for the Presidency in opposition to the 8 years ousted, world-peace sponsoring Democratic party, whose middle class members can only afford to cry foul on Republican handling of sensitive African matters while struggling to make ends meet. The U.S. is South Africa’s number one trade partner, and each nation has economic class problems, given the recent collapse and nationalization of Bear Sterns, volatile American markets, and a conservative South African estimate of 25% unemployment. As the foremost African ally of the USA, South Africa forms one of three points of the Axis of Heaven – a democratic triumvirate of Israel, South Africa, and America.
The African National Republic, the leading political party once headed by Nelson Mandela, with forceful admonition vis-à-vis failed democratic foreign policy, do so insist the following: that the next President of the United States honor both the 2002 Monterrey Conference and Millennium Challenge fund and the June 2005 Malaria Plan, with 50% of allocated funds to be distributed as direct aid, and abstinence-only programs be eliminated from aid packages; as well, cooperate in supplying hands-on expertise regarding a revamped SA Nuclear Energy program envisioned to help offset an energy infrastructure based 94% on coal, and research further green energy implementation while eliminating ethanol based production; and, furthermore, insist that the United States lead the charge to preserve the politically disintegrating Zimbabwe-South Africa trade relationship through international military support during Zimbabwe’s tumultuous election period, and potential run-off vote. Furthering the call to end poverty, secure democracy, and economically establish sound states in Africa is entirely possible with a two-fold South African sponsored initiative; a congressionally led Constitutional Amendment establishing short and long-term African foreign policy with regard to the aforementioned proposals, while ensuring that Zimbabwe becomes the first fosterling member of the "African Democratic Heaven," averting the all too real possibility of chaotic electoral unrest creating yet another failed African state.
Israel ties to South African nuclear development and diplomacy exist before apartheid ended, extending as well to Israel’s life vest in hostile Palestine waters, the USA, South Africa’s post- apartheid savior. All three states are democratically and economically sound, and the South Africa’s Stock Exchange is ranked 17th on the world scale in terms of total market capitalization (BAA). South Africa is the "world's largest producer and exporter of gold and platinum, [and] a significant amount of coal. During 2000, platinum overtook gold as South Africa's largest foreign exchange earner. The value-added processing of minerals to produce ferroalloys, stainless steels, and similar products is a major industry and an important growth area" for South Africa, where institutions are now supported by the state, an African country where genuine businesses can finally develop and economic growth emerge as a result (GAA). In working with their metallic specialization, " the country's diverse manufacturing industry is a world leader in several specialized sectors, including railway rolling stock, synthetic fuels, and mining equipment and machinery," all producing jobs for South African people (GAA).
But it is not enough to battle the severity of the unemployment crisis. In the short term, "South Africa's GDP is expected to increase gradually during the next few years, and the government recently revised upward its 2007 estimated growth to 4.7%" (GAA). In terms of avoiding skyrocketing food prices worldwide, South Africa’s employed citizens should be content with GDP growth and wage inflation, but when "Annual GDP growth between 1994 and 2004 averaged 3.0%," and with "a minimum of 6% [needed] to offset unemployment" that’s "estimated at 28%. . . [possibly as] high as 41%", slow economic growth remains an issue that the South African community takes umbrage with and is unlikely to be resolved soon (GAA).
As a member of the SACU and SADC, South Africa "intends to provide duty-free treatment for 85% of [sub-Saharan] trade by 2008 and 100% by 2012" improving the trade relations of its poor sub-African neighbors immensely, while "exports reached 29.1% of GDP in 2007, up from 11.5% a decade ago" (GAA). This economic growth combined with multiple major trading partners including the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Italy, Belgium, and Japan, demonstrate that South Africa has survived its transition from sanctioned government apartheid to emerge as a modern democratic and free market vehicle of the people. South Africa has never in its history been more stable, politically, economically, and militarily, than it is now. The time to fulfill the African segment of the Third Way to Globalization, originally penned by Bill Clinton, is now. President Clinton writes.
"Globalization imposed on its beneficiaries the responsibility of sharing its gains and its burdens and empowering more people to participate in it. Essentially, I advocated a Third Way approach to globalization: trade plus a concerted effort to give people and nations the tools and conditions to make the most of it. Finally I argued that giving people hope through economic growth and social justice was essential to our ability to persuade the twenty-first-century world to walk away from the modern horrors of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction and the old conflicts rooted in racial, religious, and tribal hatreds" (893).
A renewal of the pledges and honoring of agreements given by the Clinton and Bush Administration concerning the following political conferences, funds, and plans, would be instrumental in invigorating the democratic alliance between South Africa and the US, and strengthening the American resolve to make the world a democracy of the people, starting in Africa, where the smallest amount of money can make the largest difference.
"In my first two years, when the democrats were in the majority... it seemed to me that we had a chance to built a bipartisan consensus on at least three initiatives: the New Markets program, the trade bill for Africa and the Caribbean, and the Millennium Debt Relief effort," says Bill Clinton in My Life, emphasizing the legislation designed with the greatest chance to actually be implemented and realistically change the world with international organizations (893). In 1997, James A. Joseph, the Ambassador of the United States of America to South Africa, wrote in great detail in his African Security Review on NEPAD and the Millennium Challenge Account, "which would potentially increase total US spending on development assistance by 50% to reach US$ 5 billion by 2006," addressing the belief of Bill Clinton’s administration that peace truly was just around the corner, if only Republican-Democrat bickering could cease just long to pass definitive legislation. Unfortunately, two years of Bill Clinton espousing globalization’s virtues spurned a red wave Republican majority that regained its congressional power, and "afterward, the Republican Congress was less sympathetic to such efforts especially those designed to reduce poverty and create new jobs in poor nations," (Clinton, 893). American African foreign policy transfigured into a waiting game for funding while Clinton endlessly repeated, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." It was not until March of 2002 in Monterrey, Mexico, that the United Nations organized and pledged to finally meet the millennium challenge of addressing extreme poverty with proposed widespread funding increases.
President George W. Bush retroactively "announced a Millennium Challenge Fund of 5 Billion annually for development aid, but three years later only $400,000 (less than 1 percent) has actually been distributed," a flagrant disregard from an ever troublingly cavalier United States, a Bush administration that felt unbound by the endless toils of Bill Clinton to sincerely address global poverty (Carter, 188). Both previous President’s policies and agreements were inconsequential compared to the new bosses and their pseudo-Realist war policy, the Republican neo-conservative Vulcan’s running the White House after 9/11. The U.N. Millennium Project was established to truly account and manage the monetary promises agreed upon in Monterrey, but out of $3 Billion allocated U.S. aid for sub-Saharan Africa, "only $118 Million was left for U.S. in-country operations and direct support for programs run by African governments and communities" (Carter, 187).
According to the former President himself, aid accounted for "just 18 cents for each of the nearly 650 million people in low-income nations for investments in health, education, roads, power, water and sanitation, and democratic institutions in the region," a paltry sum given the vast goals originally decided upon (Carter, 188). What is painfully ironic is that it’s estimated that only forty-four cents per 100$ of US GNI would fulfill the Millennium Project requirements, and "to put this in perspective, just the increase in U.S. defense spending since 2001 has been 1.70$ per 100$ of US GNI, while tax cuts mostly for wealthy Americans have amounted to 3.30$ per $100 of the US GNI (Carter, 190). President Bush and Vice President Cheney spent the money for the Millennium Initiative, but not on adhering to the United State’s promises. Instead, the money funneled directly into the United States’ military-industrial complex, snatching the promise of hope away from African fingers weak with poverty.
In competition with the failed Millennium Challenge Fund, the June 2005 Malaria Plan has been an utter catastrophe. In it, Bush proposed "a plan to furnish 1.2 billion for a five-year campaign against malaria in fifteen African countries," a promise that if fulfilled would’ve been remarkable. It serves as a somber reflection on democracy, then, when "commitments [are] abandoned by the White House, slashed by the Congress, or so bogged down in administrative complexities that little support actually reaches the people," and direct-aid response becomes completely negligible (Carter, 190). Take for example, that " the annual United States foreign aid budget for fighting malaria [is] $90 million, but 95% of the money is being spent on consultants and less that 5 percent on mosquito nets, drugs, and insecticide spraying to fight the disease," a dastardly revelation that exposes the mere trifling cents America’s government shares with poor nations, only sixteen cents out of each $100 dollars (Carter, 187). Malaria is responsible for the deaths of 165,000 people every month, and with only "about 2.50$ a year from each American and European citizen, [we] could mount an effective global fight against malaria." It is inconsequential individual amount that if massively assembled, would evaporate wherever government contractors could shave a little off the bottom line, if America’s experiment with Iraq contracting is any indication. Such a large compilation of money for extreme poverty aid has yet, however, to even occur.
In the short term, South Africa expects to reopen negotiations with the United States regarding the 2002 Monterrey Conference and Millennium Challenge fund, as well as the June 2005 Malaria plan, with the original intent of working together with the United States to honor the agreements and foreign policy. In addition, South Africa will lobby the U.S. Congress to pass legislation directing 50% of all allocated funds to be distributed as direct aid to the African people, and provide 100% transparency with regards to dispersing the foreign aid assistance.
President Bush’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), allocates AIDS prevention based solely on funding "public education efforts to promote abstinence," a policy that is very detrimental to the severe AIDS epidemic facing South Africa (Ploch). The Republican platform has no grants for contraception, counseling on contraception, or any sex education whatsoever, just an abstinence only policy. With what looks like a Democratic President on the horizon, South Africa wants to fully replace abstinence-only education with expanded sexual education, teach instructions on using contraceptives, and rewrite the relief plan for AIDS with the help of U.S. taxpayer money. In what is a moronic statement, Presidential candidate John McCain was asked on his campaign bus, "Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?" After a long pause, Mr. McCain responded: "You’ve stumped me" (Nagrourney). No rationale exists for such an unenlightened statement, and South Africa has paid as a result of ambiguous statements by American politicians with conflicting Health policies each administration turnover.
As recently as August 2006, at the International AIDS Conference in Toronto, "Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang drew international criticism for a controversial display of traditional remedies such as garlic, lemons, and beetroot, which she reportedly claimed provided an alternative defense to AIDS," an utterly misguided opinion no doubt enforced when cutting-edge American politicians fail to grasp simple Health concepts (Ploch). As a result, South Africa proposes that PEPFAR evolve to include youtube video recordings and broadcasted African radio ads of the next US President clearly outlining correct foreign policy on AIDS prevention and sex education, while decrying the religious-right associated abstinence prerogative.
The long-term foreign policy proposal of South Africa to reform US-SA foreign relations is the African Lincoln Initiative. In administering African aid, it is necessary to comprehend that "U.S. subsidy payments just to our cotton farmers are greater than the total national income of Mali, and double the amount of all American development assistance to sub-Saharan Africa" (Carter, 196). In order to best funnel poverty and aid money through NGO’s, state’s, and international institutions, South Africa believes that ex-American President Jimmy Carter’s calculations providing that if only "2.50$ a year from each American and European citizen could mount an effective global fight against malaria," and a much greater investment in direct aid would increase the effectiveness of foreign aid, and put a stop to wasteful contracting that eliminates 95% of the US budget for battling Malaria (Carter, 187). If the United States can afford to nationalize the bad debt of Bear Stearns Bank, and financially buoy JP Morgan through a partnership investment not seen since the Great Depression, a $5 a year tax on the American people would not be too grandiose of a proposal for funding the entire war on African poverty. The United States should lead internationally with the African Lincoln Initiative and garner a European coalition of support, requiring only 2.50$ per individual, per country, per year, to create a direct-aid vehicle controlled by a democratic South Africa, a member of the Axis of Heaven, that could possibly eliminate malaria worldwide, or bring poverty to a standstill while we still can amidst a rocketing worldwide population increase.
South Africa has recently become firmly committed to renewing an established and once-defunct nuclear program, originally suspended and voluntarily relinquished but for two reactors when apartheid was eliminated and economic sanctions lifted against South Africa in the 1990s. The current stress on the world food market has quickly shown that corn-based ethanol is neither a cheaper, nor safer alternative to oil, and therefore the only viable alternatives to the South African coal system running at full capacity are nuclear, solar, and bio- algae investments. As such, South Africa’s stance on corn-based ethanol production within the United States is that it should cease immediately, before further damage is caused to the less fortunate African nations South Africa represents, and their fragile staple food supply.
The United States’ commitment to establishing alternate forms of green energy and energy independence coincide directly with South Africa’s nuclear ambitions. "The United States leads the world in direct foreign investment in South Africa, with over 600 American companies active in the country," and with the US acknowledged as the premier country for nuclear research, South Africa would benefit greatly from a government assisted dialogue between US and South African nuclear scientists and engineers (Ploch). In partnership with Eskom and the federal government, monetary support from the United States for the proposed Pebble Bed Modular Reactors would help provide an nuclear output increase to "27 GWe, supplying 30% of [all] electricity by 2030, including 12 new large PWR unites and an initial set of 24 PBMRs" (NPSA). The current energy system, of which "some 94% comes from coal-fired plants," undoubtedly contributes to global warming, and the fragile electricity network may be threatened by the economic growth being experienced in South Africa (NPSA).
South Africa fully intends to comply with the International Atomic Energy Agency, and has been a valued member of the nonproliferation treaty since 1992, understanding that production on nuclear reactors beginning with all due haste are their sovereign right. "In January 2008, South Africans experienced severe electrical power cuts [that] early estimates indicate . . . may have cost the economy millions. The country's crucial mining sector was hit particularly hard . . . [and] electricity from South Africa was cut to neighboring countries, " a foreboding overload of South Africa’s electrical institutions, and thus the product of the August 2007 nuclear energy policy draft (Ploch). It addresses "23 years of experience with nuclear power, [and outlining] an extensive program to develop all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle. With uranium mining already well established, conversion, enrichment, fuel fabrication and also reprocessing of used fuel are envisaged as strategic priorities related to energy security," South Africa has established both a short-term and long term energy stance with regard to nuclear power, with the first fuel (NPSA). It is none too soon, for "SA power exports have been curtailed while domestic demand is being managed by major cutbacks in industrial use, expected to lead to a significant decline in economic growth," exactly why South Africa requires monetary assistance from the United States to help navigate an energy export balance that supplies much of the electricity used by the African continent.
The temperate climate of South Africa makes it a valuable location for investments into solar technology and for bio-algae technology. Long-term SA energy policy should be concentrated on eliminating coal as a energy resource, pursuing efficient solar energy solutions when invented, building a nuclear power foundation, and investing R&D in the published policy brief by Michael Briggs, University of New Hampshire, entitled "Widescale Biodiesel Production from Algae," which should result in a US and SA joint-partnership pursuing the published claims. These include that,
"The operating costs (including power consumption, labor, chemicals, and fixed capital costs (taxes, maintenance, insurance, depreciation, and return on investment) worked out to $12,000 per hectare. That would equate to 46.2 billion per year for all the algae farms, to yield all the oil feedstock necessary for the entire country. Compare that to the $100-150 billion the US spends each year just on purchasing crude oil from foreign countries, with all that money leaving the US economy. (Briggs).
The South African Commission for Algae-based Diesel Production would be established with regards to long-term foreign energy policy, and secure funds for the energy venture research, provided that agreement by the United States to provide matching funding was acquired. The potential for an emerging job market would provide employment to a vast number of unemployed South Africans, facilitated through trans-national education and training with the US, construction of algae farms, and the physical farming of the oil if the algae-research comes to fruition.
Only in acting forcefully and fiscally can the United States intercede in Zimbabwean politics, to the extent needed to begin the fulfillment of the Third Way, representing the most important Democratic milestone; that of a peaceful transition to an opposition government. The United States foreign policy with respect to Rwandan genocide, French-occupied CAR colonialism, and the establishment of true African democracy has been circumspect with a never-ending major news media blackout. Of absolute importance to South Africa foreign policy is the trade that exists between it and Zimbabwe. If American liberalization theory holds true, as well as the politicians who adhere to it, democratic and republican, America should lead the international charge to preserve the voting privileges of Zimbabweans with military support during the potential run-off vote between ousted President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, unofficially declared the Presidential race winner. The European Union called for an international halt in arms sales to Zimbabwe, today, April 29th, 2008, but that is simply not enough to secure Zimbabwe against constitutional and humanitarian crises after 28 years of dictatorship-like rule.
South Africa estimates that there are "between three and five million Zimbabweans currently residing illegally in South Africa," and the potential for a mass exodus from a fully failed Zimbabwean state would push South African institutions to their limit (Ploch). Since Zimbabwe’s largest trading partner is South Africa and the two are connected via a north-south border, SA can exert substantial leverage on its neighbor, and will promote intervention in response to recent Zimbabwe arms importation, and severe political unrest. The short-term foreign policy that South Africa proposes is that of an international community of EU NATO sponsored military troops that sets a resolute beginning and non-negotiable withdrawal date through which NATO troops would prevent any crimes against humanity, and ensure that opposition voters are not harassed away in fear from the voting booths. The 2008 US Democratic Presidential discourse centers on eliminating the influence of "fear" politics, and the ANR believes that such discussion should not only be limited to the United States’ media discourse, but include action to preserve Democracy in Zimbabwe in alliance with South Africa.
Mistakes have abounded with the South African administration, much like the current American one. While serving as the President of the U.N. Security Council for one month in March 2007, South Africa "reportedly blocked discussion of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe," cause Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu to write, "I am deeply disappointed by out vote [as] it is a betrayal of our own noble past. . . the tyrannical military regime is gloating and we sided with them" (Ploch). As well, South African Deputy President Mlambo-Ngcuka congratulated their northern-border sharing nation on "the holding of a peaceful, credible, well-managed and transparent election. The people of Zimbabwe have expressed their will in an impressively instructive manner that will go a long way in contributing to the consolidation of democracy and political stability not only in Zimbabwe, but also in the region as a whole" (Ploch). These statements have been ridiculed by the international press, where American and British press deemed the 2005 parliamentary elections "fundamentally flawed" and "seriously tainted," as well as demonstrating the quick backpedaling the South African government needed to do when faced with having denied Chinese-Zimbabwe arms shipments dock at port, and with political controversy increasing at the border (Ploch).
Now is the time to invoke the Third Way and eliminate President Bush’s sanctions "prohibiting travel to the US by Zimbabwe leaders," drop the penalties and sanctions imposed on the nation worldwide, and negotiate either a peaceful transfer of power or ensure a democratic run-off is fairly held (Ploch). Long-term foreign policy of South Africa has historically been to deal with President Mugabe through "quite diplomacy," and that policy no longer has applicable merit. With 80% unemployment, Zimbabwe tiptoes the line between recognition as a failed African state, and the easiest way to avert such a classification is to ensure that Zimbabwe becomes the first subsidized member of the "African Democratic Heaven," with combined US and SA institutional support. In the vein of combating poverty, Bill Clinton wrote, "I thought the anti-trade, anti-globalization forces were wrong in believing that trade had increased poverty. In fact, trade had lifted more people out of poverty, and pulled more nations of isolation," than any initiative before it (Clinton 893). The US foreign policy with relation to Zimbabwe should be identical to that of South Africa, where facilitating trade and ensuring that democracy is allowed to run its course are paramount; hopefully, this time, democratic countries will not stand idly by, helplessly watching the dirty and corrupt fingers of a military dictatorship manipulate the people behind a democratic veil.
As a two year trial period on the U.N. Security Council comes to a close in 2008, South Africa’s short term foreign policy with relation to the United States should focus on securing promised fiscal assistance from the United States by way of the African Lincoln Initiative, and the formation of a direct-aid Coalition of European members. This assistance should either be enacted as a Constitutional Amendment concerning African treaties and international aid to the entire continent, or as an unbreakable law that will unquestioningly rise above the partisan bickering of subsequent opposition Presidencies. Energy independence from coal production will continue to remain a government-sponsored act, with privatization occurring eventually, and South Africa looks forward to dual investing into the future green energies with the United States.
Particular importance must be played by both incoming liberalism adhering Democrats, and the current neo-conservative White House with relation to Zimbabwe and the real possibility of a complete state collapse. Culpability would lie with the United States if adequate international support fails to apply to appropriate pressure on Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugade after Congressional discussion of this brief, and the United States and South Africa jointly fail to help a troubled Democracy rise to its knees as a member of the African Democratic Heaven. On a question concerning South African’s importance as an African democracy, Vice President Gore stated that,
"We are on the same journey, trying to create a non-racial democracy with justice and economic opportunity for everyone regardless of gender, religion or ethnic origin. If South Africa succeeds economically, it will not only create a model for development, but it will be a beacon of hope for the whole continent. A strong South African economy could become the engine of growth... especially in Southern Africa" (Joseph).
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