ABSTRACT
What are the drivers of American foreign policy in these regions? Was Huntington right about African and Islamic challenges to Western civilisation? Would the ‘end of history’ see democracy spread across the African continent and the Middle East and assimilate even Islam? Would regional insecurity drive states to develop WMDs and create a ‘back-to-the-future’ scenario, particularly in the Middle East? And would post-Cold War US presidencies be able to formulate and execute coherent strategies or would they be inconsistent, event driven and circumscribed by domestic actors and interests influencing foreign policy? How, too, would the US seek to exercise its power in these regions and to what ends? Could a Middle East peace settlement be secured? Could Africa be brought from the periphery to the centre of international concern? And could the US finally reconcile its promotion of universal values with policy on the ground?
