Kate Almquist Knopf

Send an Ambassador, Not an Envoy, to Khartoum

3/1/13

This week marks what some consider the tenth anniversary of the conflict in Darfur. Sadly, this is not the only conflict still ravaging the people of Sudan and South Sudan. As the White House is preparing to name the United States’ seventh special envoy to Sudan and South Sudan in the last 12 years, I believe it’s time for a different approach to US policy, one that puts the central governance challenges in each state at the forefront.

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Friend or Foe? US Counterterrorism Strategy in Africa

2/5/13

Kate Almquist Knopf

The US military’s recently signed Status-of-Forces Agreement (SOFA) with Niger for a planned surveillance drone base is only the latest development in the Pentagon and the CIA’s expanding presence on the continent. It also portends the increased use of drone strikes against terrorist targets in Africa.

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Note to Gen. Rodriguez: Africa Is Not Afghanistan

10/25/12

Kate Almquist Knopf

On October 18, 2012, the president nominated Gen. David Rodriguez to be the next commander of AFRICOM. While my invitation to brief him hasn’t arrived quite yet, here’s an advance copy of the seven key points that I would recommend he bear in mind as he prepares for his new role.

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Why Khartoum Needs an Ambassador, Not a USAID Mission

9/20/12

Kate Almquist Knopf

The tragic loss of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three of his staff in Benghazi last week brought back all too vivid memories of USAID/Sudan’s loss of two dedicated staff in a terrorist attack on New Year’s morning 2008. (I was the head of USAID's Africa bureau at the time.) In the wake of last Friday’s attack on the US embassy in Khartoum, I’m pondering anew the rationale behind the official American presence in Khartoum and the Government of Sudan’s commitment to its safety.

Africa Doesn't Need the Pentagon's Charity - Why I'm Grumpy About DOD's Development Programs in Africa

8/28/12

Kate Almquist Knopf

This blog was originally featured at AllAfrica.com.

In her recent Foreign Policy column, "The Pivot to Africa," Rosa Brooks made a plea for letting go of comfortable old assumptions about roles and missions between the civilian and non-civilian sides of the US government, particularly when it comes to US civil-military cooperation in Africa. My plea is for an evidence-based discussion of US development policy and its intersection with US national security.

US interests will be ill-served if we merely move from comfortable old (and false) assumptions about poverty and terrorism in Africa to comfortable new (and equally false) assumptions about "whole-of-government responses" to complex challenges. While the United States should of course think and work creatively, skepticism and, dare I say, opposition, from civilian agencies to AFRICOM taking on non-traditional military roles is not rooted in turf battles but in legitimate concerns about efficiency and results.

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Send an Ambassador, Not an Envoy, to Khartoum

Friend or Foe? US Counterterrorism Strategy in Africa

Note to Gen. Rodriguez: Africa Is Not Afghanistan

Why Khartoum Needs an Ambassador, Not a USAID Mission

Africa Doesn't Need the Pentagon's Charity - Why I'm Grumpy About DOD's Development Programs in Africa