Photo from Flickr user nathanf
Early in his first term, then-President George W. Bush ordered his administration to initiate a full review of U.S. policy regarding Sudan. The review was launched against a backdrop of a decades old civil war between the ruling Sudanese regime in Khartoum and the rebellious Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in South Sudan. The goal of the policy was relatively simple: end the deadly war while maintaining U.S. national and economic security interests. The result of that policy review was a strategy that included the appointment of Sen. John Danforth as President Bush’s first Special Envoy to Sudan, the furthering of U.S. – Sudanese counterterrorism intelligence cooperation, and ultimately the Comprehensive Peace Agreement which ended the war. While it’s clear that the U.S. effort was a contributing – and not independently causal – factor in ending the conflict, and while it’s undeniable that the CPA and the peace it created are still tenuous, it is also clear that significant progress was made towards peace as a result of a coherent and sufficiently executed U.S. policy plan.
Fast forward to today and we find ourselves at a similar point – with a new U.S. Administration and a seemingly intractable Sudanese conflict, this time in Darfur. President Barack Obama is well aware of the complexity of Sudanese politics and the volatility attached to efforts aimed at achieving political change there. He is also well aware – thanks to millions of his concerned constituents – of the need to do something about the effects of genocide in Darfur, the unraveling peace in South Sudan, and the potential for the anarchic dissolution of Africa’s geographically largest nation.
