Last night President Obama gave his State of the Union Address. It was a fine speech as far as such things go. It came as no surprise that domestic affairs dominated the speech given the nature of the economy in the United States and the general stalemate over a range of domestic politics that has settled over American politics. Even foreign affairs specialists were not shocked by the relative lack of foreign policy issues in the speech.
What foreign policy issues there were connected overwhelmingly to terrorism and to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And so in a speech with minimal coverage of issues outside of American borders it comes as not even a little bit of a shock that Africa barely even registered in the speech. In fact Obama made passing reference to the referendum in South Sudan and the stunning events in Tunisia and that’s about it:
Recent events have shown us that what sets us apart must not just be our power — it must also be the purpose behind it. In south Sudan — with our assistance — the people were finally able to vote for independence after years of war. (Applause.) Thousands lined up before dawn. People danced in the streets. One man who lost four of his brothers at war summed up the scene around him: “This was a battlefield for most of my life,” he said. “Now we want to be free.”
And we saw that same desire to be free in Tunisia, where the will of the people proved more powerful than the writ of a dictator. And tonight, let us be clear: The United States of America stands with the people of Tunisia, and supports the democratic aspirations of all people.
Basically South Sudan and Tunisia serve as examples for American support of “the democratic aspirations of all people.” If this isn’t quite boilerplate it is not far removed.
I understand why this is so. The context of the speech almost guaranteed that the economy and political climate would dominate and that foreign policy would be slighted. And even the most optimistic observers of African affairs could not have expected that the continent would get more than passing mention. But of course it would have been nice.
