A new blog post by the President of Uganda calls on African nations to develop a new “Monroe Doctrine” for the continent that puts an end to Western interventionist policies and their consequences.

Yoweri Museveni, writing on his personal website, explores the recent right-leaning political shifts in the United States, Britain and Hungary – citing the defeats of both David Cameron and Hillary Clinton among them – before turning to a factor he says has “turned into a curse for the perpetrators.”

“This is the factor of conducting wars of aggression against sovereign states that are, moreover, members of the UN,” Museveni wrote.

He adds that European and U.S. responses to migration are strategies directed at a problem of their own making: “Cynically speaking, though, the USA and EU should not complain about Africans and Arabs flooding into those countries as refugees.  They are the ones that had invaded our countries as imperialists, in the first place.”

He traces how the United States and other western nations attacked Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, and makes clear his view that the latter two were unjust “wars of aggression.” Where Libya is concerned, Museveni describes at length a nation destroyed by Western neo-imperialism with ripple effects that include the costs to African economies and the rise of terrorist groups in Mali, Niger and wider Lake Chad region.

“Why should Africa tolerate such disruption on her territory caused, in part, by foreigners?” the Ugandan President asks, while holding African leaders accountable for the weakness that allows it.

His reference to the 19^th century U.S. Monroe Doctrine draws a clear parallel with the document that, just 50 years into American independence, warned European powers against any further attempts at colonization or imperialist action, anywhere in the Americas.

“Can Africa defend African soil?  Very much so,” Museveni said, calling on the AU to write its own Monroe Doctrine.

Image: Yoweri Museveni