August 2025
Issue brief Addressing China’s military expansion in West Africa and beyond
Tressa Guenov As China expands its military reach in West Africa, the United States risks losing strategic ground on the continent. The next National Defense Strategy must confront China’s ambitions beyond the Indo-Pacific, balancing defense diplomacy, bilateral military relationships, and counterterrorism.
Bottom lines up front •
The United States is poised to cede strategic space in Africa to China and needs a defense strategy that addresses real security challenges on the continent, especially China’s military focus on West Africa.
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With the next National Defense Strategy, the administration will need to address the role of China outside the Indo-Pacific, including the possibility of China building a military base or other major military capability in West Africa from which it could project military power directly into the Atlantic Ocean.
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While the Trump administration may be looking to narrow the United States’ role on the continent, Africa is too vast, important, and complex to attempt bilateral defense diplomacy, military-to-military relations, and counterterrorism efforts on the cheap, by proxy, or from afar.
The continent of Africa, especially West Africa, is an underappreciated US strategic opportunity and vulnerability. For instance, Gabon, a remote nation of just 2.5 million people on Africa’s west coast, is unlikely to be the first country that comes to mind as the Donald Trump administration contemplates the next Department of Defense (DoD) National Defense Strategy (NDS). Yet, for the defense and military strategists
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ATLANTIC COUNCIL
working toward the August deadline for the NDS set by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the strategic future of Gabon and other West African countries should feature prominently as DoD addresses China’s military ambitions beyond the Indo-Pacific and how DoD intends to allocate its resources and attention to that effort.1
For the purposes of this piece West Africa is defined broadly to include countries extending from Mauritania and as far south as Namibia along the Atlantic Ocean. This broad lens includes many complex and important subregions, including countries that are part of the Sahel, Gulf of Guinea, and southwest Africa; Jacob Zenn, “China Sets Sight on Gabon for Second African Military Base,” Foreign Military Studies Office, February 15, 2025, https:// fmso.tradoc.army.mil/2025/china-sets-sight-on-gabon-for-second-african-military-base/.
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