Africa & the World Today: The Continent’s Pressing Issues

On October 18th, USC SIR hosted the “Africa and the World Today: The Continent’s Pressing Issues” panel featuring Dr. Witney Schneidman (Ph.D. ‘87) and Dr. Jerry Bender (SIR Professor Emeritus)

The two-hour panel, moderated by Dr. Brett Carter, Assistant Professor at the School of International Relations, opened with each panelist highlighting their in depth research and travel across the various regions of Africa, and their thoughts and impressions on the future of the continent.

Dr. Schneidman’s career in Sub-Saharan Africa is highlighted by his time spent serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs under the Clinton Administration. Within this role, he oversaw the resolve of various economic and commercial issues impacting the public and private sector across Sub-Saharan Africa. During his time as a doctoral student at the School of International Relations, Dr. Schneidman conducted research under Professor Emeritus Dr. Jerry Bender, who specializes in U.S. Foreign Policy with a regional emphasis towards Africa. Dr. Bender, who conducts research on the perceptions and misperceptions of United States Foreign Policy on Africa, discussed his time spent working on foreign policy at the cusp of the public and private sector. An interesting point of discussion arose when he elaborated upon the time he faced pressure from the Angolan government on human rights concerns and economic interests in Africa. At the time, the private sector was in noncompliance with human rights violations, at the precedent of economic prosperity. Therefore, Dr. Bender made the decision, as a foreign policy leader, to act to resolve the human rights issues, while mitigating any concerns with regards to depreciative economic performance with successful outcomes.

The panel concluded with a Q&A for students to pose questions they had with regards to specific interests on the current and future state of African foreign affairs. Amongst the topics covered during the Q&A included the direction of US Foreign Policy in Africa, the future of democracy in Africa, with regards to autocratic states, and US multinational companies that manage and operate offshore entities in Africa. The discussion concluded with career advice from both Dr. Schneidman and Dr. Bender for USC students pursuing careers in Foreign Policy.

The “Africa and the World Today” panel was a great experience overall for those in attendance. With the future of the African continent encompassing so much with regards to foreign policy, political stability, as well as economic development and human rights, more similar events in the future would serve beneficial to the USC community as students explore their interests with regards to US-African Foreign Affairs and the African continent as a conglomerate.