By Griffin Stibor, Fall 2024 Marcellus Policy Fellow

The United States and China have the opportunity to change the framing of great-power rivalry in Africa through strategic cooperation on climate change. Both the United States and China have an interest in addressing climate change and both countries are currently engaged in Africa. The United States has conducted counterterrorism operations for nearly 20 years and has been a leader in development finance through grants, loans, and technical assistance in Africa. China has engaged through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which focuses on building major infrastructure projects with speed and minimal conditions when compared to U.S. or international organization-led projects. There is significant overlap with the scope and mission of U.S. and Chinese development aid in Africa. However, each have their own specializations. Cooperation would allow for the United States and China to address climate change in Africa through a more effective and efficient process if both parties rely upon their strengths. Cooperation on development in the name of combating climate change would provide a necessary avenue for both Washington and Beijing to engage in positive dialogue. Positive engagement with China could improve the relationship between the two countries by operating as a gateway to a more cooperative coexistence, rather than one of tension or a new cold war.

There exists recent precedent for collaboration between powerful adversaries. In 2001, the United States and Iran cooperated to overthrow the Taliban from power in Afghanistan and in Iraq they coordinated using intermediaries to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). In 2014, the United States and China formally introduced a bilateral climate agreement. These instances of cooperation amidst rivals provided a basis for both parties to move forward towards a more amicable relationship. However, due to domestic politics in the United States, these instances of cooperation were fairly short-lived.

For the United States, cooperation with China in Africa would be an opportunity to mitigate the effects of climate change in a part of the world that will face some of the most severe results of climate related disasters. It would also mark a shift away from the current U.S. policy in Africa that is focused primarily on security assistance and counterterrorism than on development. A framework for the region where the two countries utilize their comparative advantages would be far more efficient than the current policies of both the United States and China. The current U.S. policy is often disjointed and ad hoc, while the Chinese policies of the BRI are more concerted. To reach a successful cooperative framework for the region, the United States and China must build trust with one another within the region through coordination of resources and funds through their African counterparts to understand what needs investment and establish standards for how they should operate in the region. The strategy of the U.S.-Chinese cooperation in Africa would lead to a point in which the U.S. government uses its advantage in technology, technical expertise, and capital while China utilizes its ability to mobilize its manufacturing, diplomats in Africa, and speed for executing infrastructure projects. Ultimately, this would operate as an avenue for positive relations to grow between the United States and China in a time of worsening relations between these countries.