GEOSTRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES – CHINA COOL WAR ON SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Abstract

The cooperation that characterized United States - China relations towards the fall of the 20th century gradually slurred into competition and eventually rivalry. While the United States seeks to maintain its hegemony, China on the other hand desires to upend the status quo. The resultant cool war pervades Latin America, the Asia Pacific and Africa. Being the least developed of the continents with the highest number of sovereign states as well as its endowment in raw materials and mineral deposits, Africa holds the promise of the present and that of the future for both powers therefore becoming of strategic interests to both Beijing and Washington. In spite of the long-held stronghold of the United States in Africa, China’s penetration into the economy, infrastructural landscape, diplomatic and military domain in the subSahara Africa tends to upset the balance setting the pace for a cool war in the region. The strategic implication this has and ways to mitigate against negative impact on African states is the very focus which this thesis seeks to explore.