As relações internacionais contemporâneas: os EUA e o regionalismo na Costa Oeste Africana: reflexos para a segurança marítima no Golfo da Guiné

Abstract

The African continent, whose historical heritage gives it structural, political, economic and social problems, has aroused greater interest from the United States since the beginning of the 21st century due to security factors associated with the increase in the exploitation of natural reserves, which led to the creation of a new Combatant Command to the African continent -AFRICOM - a characteristic feature of its military diplomatic spectrum. I t will be analyzed, using the historical archeology of the post World War II period, the expansion of the North American presence in Africa, through AFRICOM, based on theories of securitization of non -military issues, regionalization and Penetration of exogenous powers to a system of regional security, presented by Barry Buzan and scholars of the Copenhagen School, as well as concepts of power grading (softpower, smartpower and hardpower), from authors of the neoliberal institutional ismsuch as Joseph Nye. The interdependence of two different variables : the US Penetration in the context of the Gulf of Guinea maritime security and the S ecurity Commun ity of Practice of the region's top actors will be analyzed in a temporal framework of the last five years. It is identified that arguments related to the geopolitics of petroleum, piracy and the presence of China contribute to the US The proposal is that the consolidation of regional structures and institutions of maritime safety in the Gulf of Guinea is condition ed by the North American presence as protagonist in this context. The insertion or extension of the presence of an exogenous actor to the African continent in the Gulf of Guinea maritime safety system, such as Brazil, will require actions in political, strategic and operational plans that consider the relationship of the two proposed variables