Treachery and Diplomacy - by Sobukwe Odinga

About the Book

Treachery and Diplomacy shines a light on US-Africa security partnerships, revealing their simmering internal tensions, hidden racial politics, and consequences for peace and democracy.

Book Synopsis

The African allies of the United States are often depicted as mere pawns or clients seeking aid. Yet African leaders have deftly capitalized on security partnerships with the United States in ways that have been widely overlooked. Through skillful negotiating, hosting US military operations, and deploying their soldiers to support Washington's strategic aims, they have advanced their own interests--sometimes at the expense of their citizens.

Treachery and Diplomacy shines a light on US-Africa security partnerships, revealing their simmering internal tensions, hidden racial politics, and consequences for peace and democracy. Sobukwe Odinga explores the contentious relations between the US and key African allies--Liberia, Ethiopia, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), and Uganda--from the Cold War to the War on Terror. He brings to life the diplomatic gambits of leaders such as William Tubman, Mobutu Sese Seko, and Yoweri Museveni, documenting how they prodded Washington to back them in regional conflicts, increase aid, and temper criticisms of their domestic policies. Odinga also considers the African American political elites who denounced and championed US-Africa security partnerships--in some moments undercutting the influence of African leaders, in others abetting their authoritarianism. Connecting American racial thought, Pan-Africanism, and Black transnationalism to US security policy toward Africa, Treachery and Diplomacy offers new insight into how African governments have pursued their own agendas.

Review Quotes

Odinga's Treachery and Diplomacy is a masterful and provocative study of the intricate dynamics of US-Africa relations. Focused on the US "security" partnerships with Africa from the Cold War to the increasingly-hot present, Odinga details the innovative strategies African leaders used in their negotiations with various US regimes. He shows how they leveraged their own domestic security and regional power projections to gain both military aid and political support - even while enabling the imperialist militarization of the African continent. The book provides incredible insight concerning African agency in the context of severe power asymmetries. It is also a pathbreaking and startlingly original study of racial politics, Pan-Africanist rhetorics, and the maneuvering of moderate African American political leaders in the forging of US-Africa statecraft. Odinga tells a real-world story of power, stealth, and intrigue in elegant, captivating prose. A singular, groundbreaking contribution to political science, foreign relations, and African and African American studies, Treachery and Diplomacy offers an urgently-needed guide to US-Africa relations.--Jemima Pierre, author of The Predicament of Blackness: Postcolonial Ghana and the Politics of Race

About the Author

Sobukwe Odinga is an assistant professor in the Department of African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.