During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union wrestled for influence in Africa. For example, the Soviets signed an agreement in 1962 with Somalia to construct a major port and military base at Berbera, and later signed a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation in 1974. But in 1977, Somalia expelled the Soviets as a result of USSR support for Ethiopia in the Ogaden War. Three years later, the U.S. had replaced the Soviets as Somalia’s major power ally.
Earlier this week, in a kind of reversal of what took place in the late 1970s, Russia appeared set to replace American military personnel in the West African state of Niger. The pending expulsion of all American forces from the landlocked Sahel state follows upon a July 2023 military coup that overthrew the country’s civilian government. Not long after, on September 16, the military government joined its counterparts in Mali and Burkina Faso to create “the alliance of Sahel states.”
The common denominator among all three nations is that they are ruled by officers who seized power in a coup d’etat and have fallen under Moscow’s influence. Indeed, in January of this year Russian troops arrived in........