Afrika, içinde barındırdığı unsurlar ne olursa olsun her dönemde üzerinde güç mücadelesinin yaşandığı bir eylem alanı olmuştur. Soğuk Savaş'a kadar Avrupa ülkeleri arasında, Soğuk Savaş yıllarında da ABD ve SSCB arasında gerçekleşen bu güç mücadelesi, Soğuk Savaş sonrasında da ABD ve Çin arasında görülmeye başlamıştır. Coğrafi keşifler ile birlikte Avrupa politikasında karşılık bulan Afrika jeopolitiği, uzun yıllar boyunca ticari bir deniz yolu olarak limanları ve kıyı kolonileri ile önem arz etmiştir. Afrika toprakları, kıtanın içlerine doğru yayılan sömürgecilik faaliyetleri ile birlikte Avrupa'da gücün simgesi olarak algılanmıştır. İkinci Dünya Savaşı sonrasında da ideolojik sürtüşmelere sahne olmuş ama rakip ideolojiler arasında bir tampon bölge gibi işlev görmüştür. Afrika jeopolitiği, yirminci yüzyılın sonlarından itibaren de enerji kaynakları, radikal gruplar ve rakip aktörlerin kıtaya yönelik politikaları tarafından şekillenmiştir. Çalışmada Afrika jeopolitiğinin uluslararası politika ortamında yaşadığı değişim ve bu değişime neden olan faktörler ele alınmaktadır. Daha sonra da değişen Afrika jeopolitiğinin ABD için ne ifade ettiği ve Afrika politikasına nasıl etki ettiği incelenmektedir. Çalışmanın amacı ABD açısından Afrika jeopolitiğine önem kazandıran durumları ve bu durumların ABD'nin Afrika politikasına nasıl yansıdığını ortaya çıkarmaktır. ABD - Afrika ilişkilerini jeopolitik açıdan analiz eden bu çalışma ABD'nin gelecekte nasıl bir Afrika politikası izleyebileceği hakkında bir öngörü oluşturabilecek niteliğe sahip olduğu için önem teşkil etmektedir

The aim of this study is to reveal what gives emphasis on the geopolitical situation of Africa from the perspective of USA and how it is reflected in the US Africa policy. In this study, changing geopolitics of Africa and factors causing these changes are discussed. Then the changing geopolitics of Africa how it is comprehended by US and how it impacts on its Africa policy will be examined. This study which analyzes US-Africa relations in terms of geopolitical has a significance because that it may pose assumptions about the future of US Africa policy. Considering the African continent from a geopolitical perspective, it appears the continent is gaining value in international politics with European geographical discovery. From this date on, the geopolitical importance of Africa has been experiencing changes in four different stages:  the first stage is that the coastal colonies and its ports have a greater importance  the second stage colonialism has spread into the interior of the continent because of the importance of the size of the territory controlable in Africa and its mines.  the third stage is that it is seen as an ideological conflict or compromise area during the Cold War  the fourth stage energy resources of continent have a great importance and it became an area for competition between the US and China. The changing geopolitics of Africa did not affect US foreign policy in the first and second stage, but it had a limited impact in the third stage, dominated by the Cold War conditions. In the last stage which is shaped by its natural resource reserves, terrorist organizations, anti-terrorism strategy and the strategy for the continent of global power actors, geopolitics of the continent has become a location that determines US foreign policy. US wanted to stay out of the problem of the ancient world until the First World War, therefore, it was not interested in the African continent. The US managed to excel as a superpower in the international policy after the Second World War. In the framework, it adopted strategies to plant a hegemony on a global scale since then. So, because of its strategic goals in this period, African continent gained importance in US foreign policy. During this period US policy towards Africa, determined from the perspective of the domain restrictions of the opponent, has fluctuated depending on the state of US relations with USSR. With the end of the Cold War, the US remains the single dominant power in the global system. The next process was seen to have acted with the struggle to protect the superiority gained. The attempt to preserve its position has revealed two fundamental strategies in the US foreign policy. The first of these strategies, is to control marketing and to ensure smooth supply of resources necessary to sustain its development. The second, is to prevent the development of an opponent potentially pose a risk to itself. From this perspective, at the beginning of the 2000s it seems that geopolitical importance of Africa entered into a continuous upward trend in US foreign policy. This rise was caused by hydrocarbon reserves on the continent, counter terrorism strategy and the posibility that US interests could be threaten by China's Africa policy. It is possible to say that these three factors, affecting US policy toward Africa, will continue in the future. Therefore US interest in Africa will most likely increase. Firstly, despite the continuated rise in the need of raw material, decreasing of the world's reserves will result to a continuous competition on resources. Of global oil reserves only 7.7% and 7.6% of natural reserves are in the Africa continent. Also, this continent has carried out 17.5% of uranium production in the world. So, Africa is gaining importance. Secondly, it is not expected to resolve problems that constitute the ground for radicalism and terror, such as famine, epidemics, conflicts, inability to be a nation on the continent in the short and medium term. For this reason, throughout many years radical movements prone to terror or violence generated by African social structure, have many economic and social problems, are inevitable. The importance of the first and second factors will not be decreasing. Therefore, attribution of the continent’s importance in global power politics would not enter into a period tends of decline. All of these reasons, Africa's geopolitical importance seem to be increasing in the coming years. Also, China's efforts to establish a base in Djibouti to protect its interests in Africa, the frequent discovery of large amounts of hydrocarbons reserves in the continent and the inability to produced remarkable solutions for the problems that triggered the radicalism, is providing evidence of the expectations that the importance of Africa will increase in US policy. For these reasons, it will not be wrong to say that the African continent will hold a place in US foreign policy with increasing importance. From the perspective of Africa's internal dynamics and the strategy of global power toward Africa, it is posible that Africa could have a significant geopolitics that experiencing the struggle over energy sources in real politics despite fighting against terrorism is emphasized. So, the future of the continent geopolitics will contain increased militarism. In this context, identifying the internal or external policies and the use of resources in African countries will be shaped on the continent in the shadow of bases outside the continent. In the coming years, US policy towards Africa will also likely have a military perspective. US will tend to increase its military presence in Africa, because of the expectation that China as rivals will also increase military power on the continent. Therefore, it is likely that we will see much more equipped and powerful U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), one of the six US geographic combatant commander, in the future. In this context, one of the expected developments is increasing its effects and strengthening its position in Africa by providing more cooperation between the military forces of the African countries and AFRICOM. Also, it would not be wrong to expect AFRICOM to take a intensive role on several services benefits of society such as education, health, development to avoid the possible responses to the militaristic approach on the continent.