Ray Copson

copsonRaymond W. Copson is an independent scholar specializing in African affairs and U.S. relations with Africa. He has taught courses on African politics at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University, and the Johns Hopkins Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. Copson’s book, The United States in Africa: Bush Policy and Beyond, has recently been published by Zed Books as part of the Royal African Society’s African Arguments series. From 2006 through June 2008, Copson edited the Online Africa Policy Forum of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. From 1978-2005, Copson served as a Specialist in International Relations at the Congressional Research Service (CRS), focusing on African affairs, African development issues, the AIDS pandemic, and U.S. aid to Africa. He holds a Ph.D. in political science/international studies from the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, where he also earned his B.A. In addition to numerous reports and congressional documents authored at CRS, Copson has published several academic articles, as well as a book on African conflict, Africa’s Wars and Prospects for Peace (M.E. Sharpe, 1994).

Posts by Ray Copson:

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

Obama’s Africa Policy: Strengths and Uncertainties

copsonToday, January 20, 2009, Barack Obama, a man of both African and American ancestry, will become President of the United States. He has an abiding interest in Africa as well as African friends and relatives. President Obama will be assisted by a Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who herself has long been interested in Africa and in issues important to Africa, such as economic development and human rights. At the United Nations, the Administration will be represented by an Ambassador, Susan Rice, who was an Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in the Bill Clinton Administration. Learning from the failures of that Administration during the Rwanda genocide, Rice has become a leading proponent of humanitarian intervention to save lives and an advocate for the international protection of human rights.

Read the rest of Obama’s Africa Policy: Strengths and Uncertainties.

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