How Will Africa Adapt To A Disappearing ‘West’?

As Trump drives a wedge between US-Europe relations, Africa should cleave closer to reliable friends and safeguard multilateralism.

The widening divergence between Europe and the United States (US) under President Donald Trump appears to be rendering the notion of the collective ‘West’ obsolete.

That could have important implications for Africa. Although the continent has been diversifying its global partnerships, it might now face difficult choices.

Mr Trump’s decision to negotiate directly (and only) with Russia for a Ukraine peace deal, and the insults directed at Europeans by US Vice-President JD Vance at this week’s Munich Security Conference, have created tensions.

Together, they seriously question the continued relevance of the transatlantic partnership.

Mr Vance urged European leaders to drop the ‘firewalls’ they have erected to keep far-right parties out of government.

These are parties, especially Germany’s Alternative for Germany, with which the Trump administration shares many values.

These include hostility to immigration, aggressive nationalism and enthusiasm for unfettered freedom of expression, even when this crosses over into hate speech.

‘The threat that I worry most about, vis-a-vis Europe, is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor,’ Mr Vance said.

‘What I worry about is the threat from within: the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values – values shared with the United States of America.’

Mr Vance’s jab that the real threat to Western values came from European governments themselves denying freedom, and not Russia, infuriated those governments who rejected the insinuation that they were authoritarian.

Mr Trump has since underscored the point by launching negotiations with Russia to end the war in Ukraine, which exclude both Ukraine and Europe. And by saying Ukraine was responsible for starting the war and branding its President Volodymyr Zelensky a ‘dictator.’

Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also shocked Europe by warning them not to assume the US would defend them ‘forever.’

The divide opening up across the Atlantic has implications for Africa, according to experts from the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) who attended the Munich Security Conference.

ISS Senior Researcher Priyal Singh saw ‘a breakdown in the transatlantic partnership,’ believing the traditional assumption that there was a unified collective ‘West’ ‘doesn’t hold true anymore.’

This meant Africa would have divergent relations with the US and Europe in future. Mr Singh said Africa’s relations with Europe would probably stay on the same path – of good governance, human rights and so on – but its relationship with the US would likely go down a very different path.

There would be an about-turn in language because of Mr Trump’s antagonism to diversity, equity and inclusion.

He thought it significant that after the Trump administration’s flurry of attacks on South Africa, the Europeans had expressed strong solidarity with South Africa.

PREMIUM TIMES