q and a | ambassador john simon
Naveed Bandali
Capitalizing on Africa’s Potential An Interview with Ambassador John Simon
21 Ambassador John Simon. Photo: Supplied
JIPO: What challenges does the African Union
JIPO: Do you agree with those who believe that
JIPO: What lessons may be learnt from efforts
(A.U.) currently face and how is it working to overcome some of its most intractable problems?
U.S. diplomacy and foreign aid are being militarized, and what are the implications of this?
to develop and stabilize parts of the African continent?
Amb Simon: The greatest challenge the A.U. faces is that, unlike any of the other major regional organizations, the A.U. has very poor countries, with the vast majority of its members either lower-middle or lower income. Therefore, it relies heavily on the donor community for resources. The A.U. constantly has to be in back-and -forth dialogue with donors to get the resources it needs to accomplish its goals. While the A.U. has excellent leadership at the top, it has very limited support capacity in terms of quantity — not in terms of talent. The A.U. Commission has 700 positions identified and only half of those are filled. Compare that to something like 30,000 positions in European Union Commission. So the A.U. has … some of the most intractable conflicts in the world in its region and the fewest resources — both in terms of financial and human — to deal with them.
Amb Simon: No, in fact I think the opposite is happening. Africa has gone from a situation where it had 15 major conflicts, ten or so years ago, to a situation now, with two major conflicts and a few simmering minor conflicts. The aid and the diplomatic efforts that we have engaged in on the continent have aimed toward increasing the peace, welfare and prosperity of the African people, and I would argue that since security is a fundamental component of increasing peace and welfare, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) does just that. AFRICOM acts in a supportive role for diplomacy and development in Africa by helping countries, regional organizations and the A.U. increase their capacity to keep the peace. In fact, through the efforts of AFRICOM and its predecessors you see many more African countries engaged in peacekeeping on the continent.
Amb Simon: The most important lesson — and unfortunately one we have not learnt well enough — is that peacekeeping requires a significant investment. In Liberia, where there were 17,000 peacekeepers, it created a real opportunity for peace in that country. I think the results are clear. You have a government that is legitimate, democratically elected, supporting a robust reconstruction program and where the concerns of Liberia going back to war — though you cannot discount them altogether — are really not a present-day fear. Meanwhile, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is 21 times the size of Liberia in terms of land and about 20 times the size in terms of population; they have a peacekeeping contingent that is about the same size as Liberia’s. Obviously, they have had less peace and more conflict in the various regions of that
24 The author is a Senior Analyst (Pakistan) at Pax Mondial Limited and an Assistant Editor on the Journal of International Peace Operations
journal of international peace operations | volume 5 | number 4 | january-february 2010
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OHN Simon served as U.S. ambassador to the African Union (2008-2009) and executive vice president of the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (2006-2008). He previously served in the White House as special assistant to the president and senior director for Relief, Stabilization and Development in the National Security Council (2003-2006) and as deputy assistant administrator for Policy and Program Coordination at USAID (2002-2003). Ambassador Simon is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C.