On Tuesday Americans went to the polls to decide on who will lead them for the next four years. However, it was more than just a choice between President Donald Trump or Former Vice President Joe Biden. It is a choice between different visions and paths not only for the United States of America but also for American leadership in the global world order. 

For years America has viewed itself and been viewed by the world as a city on a hill. As the promised land where freedoms are guaranteed, and people can make their dreams come true. We often hear of the American dream and the American way of life as an aspiration that the world must seek to emulate. Nonetheless, this election, which may see Biden inch his way to the White House by just getting 270 electoral votes, which is what is needed to win an election, is perhaps the most consequential election for America ever. 

The stakes have never been higher! The past four years of Trump’s leadership has seen America turn within and again look towards the isolationist tendencies that defined America in the first half of the 20th Century until President F.D. Roosevelt decided to break rank with ideas that America was safer when it did not meddle in European affairs but clearly, the rise of Hitler, the fall of France, and the pending fall of the British Empire meant that for American interests to be preserved, Europe could not fall and so the Pearl Harbour attack gave him a clear path to intervene and thus America leadership in the globe was established. 

You may ask, so what? Well under American leadership, the world has seen greater relative peace and broadening of wealth, and reduction of poverty over time. Its leadership has not been perfect. All you must do is look at the Middle East, where Iraq, Syria, and Yemen are riddled with terrorist networks and governments that have lauded over failed states. Moreover, even though subsequent governments have committed to a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine, Trump has broken America’s ability to be a neutral negotiator by opening the US embassy in Jerusalem, (a contested city claimed by both sides). 

The choice between Biden and Trump is more than just choosing decency over the erratic behaviour that has become synonymous with Trump, it a choice between how America chooses to define itself and its responsibility to keep the Republic bequeathed by their founding fathers. 

The world may reduce at what looks like a Biden victory but I would venture to say that if Biden wins Nevada and can hold on to his lead in Arizona, he is would be President but if he is to capture control true control of the American dream, he needs to win the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania! Its 20 electoral votes will give him a total of 290 electoral votes. This would mean any attempt by Trump to delegitimise these elections would hit an iron wall. Moreover, even more, sweet would be to win over Georgia, a state which last voted for a Democrat in 1992 for Bill Clinton. A victory there will send shock waves and break the back of the Republican Party and hopefully see it return to be a truly conservative party. 

Here in Africa, we look with a keen interest in American elections as we look towards finding true partners that will help support our own efforts to improves the lives of our people. However, we cannot afford is to extend our love for “Big Man” politics to how we view potential allies and partners. We had high hopes for the Obama administration due to his links in Africa via his Kenyan father. However, while symbolically it was an important presidency, I would venture to argue that a far more consequential presidency to African affairs was that of his predecessor, George W Bush. His government’s programme on HIV/AIDS relief, military support against Al- Shabab, and his close relations with South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki meant American leadership in African affairs was quite visible, visibility last truly seen in 2008. 

Regardless of who wins the 2020 race, African leaders must think more strategically when it comes to foreign policy. America, China, India, the EU, Japan, and the UK all have vested interests in Africa. The African Continental Free Trade Area presents a chance for all these powers to try and shape Africa’s economic integration into their image. 

We must ensure greater foreign policy and trade policy synergy when it comes to these powers and negotiates trade deals that support African development and diversification of African economies. Whether Trump gets a further four year mandate or Biden becomes America’s commander-in-chief, Africa must divorce its view of America as a city on a hill but rather look at America as a power that also has its own fragility too and ask itself what are true lessons we can learn from the American project as we curve a new way for the African project!