Africa Command: US Strategic Interests and the Role of the US Military in Africa

[Airbornelawyer]

Africa Command: U.S. Strategic Interests and the Role of the U.S. Military in Africa
Congressional Research Service report
July 06, 2007

38 pages

Available here: http://opencrs.com/document/RL34003/

Summary:

On February 6, 2007, the Bush Administration announced its intention to create a new unified combatant command, U.S. Africa Command or AFRICOM, to promote U.S. national security objectives in Africa and its surrounding waters. U.S. military involvement on the continent is currently divided among three commands: U.S. European Command (EUCOM), U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), and U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM). As envisioned by the Administration, the command's area of responsibility (AOR) would include all African countries except Egypt. In recent years, analysts and U.S. policymakers have noted Africa's growing strategic importance to U.S. interests. Among those interests are Africa's role in the Global War on Terror and the potential threats posed by ungoverned spaces; the growing importance of Africa's natural resources, particularly energy resources; and ongoing concern for the continent's many humanitarian crises, armed conflicts, and more general challenges, such as the devastating effect of HIV/AIDS. In 2006, Congress authorized a feasibility study on the creation of a new command for Africa. As defined by the Department of Defense (DOD), AFRICOM's mission will be to promote U.S. strategic objectives by working with African states and regional organizations to help strengthen stability and security in the region through improved security capability, military professionalization, and accountable governance. The command's military operations would aim to deter aggression and respond to crises. A transition team has begun establishment of the new command, which is expected to begin as a sub-unified command under EUCOM by October 2007 and achieve full capability as a stand-alone command by October 2008. DOD has signaled its intention to eventually locate AFRICOM on the continent, and U.S officials are consulting with strategic partners in the region to identify a suitable location for the command's headquarters. The transition team and the new command will operate from Stuttgart, Germany until facilities in Africa are secured. The Department of Defense has stressed that there are no plans to have a significant troop presence on the continent. The 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in East Africa highlighted the threat of terrorism to U.S. interests on the continent. Political instability and civil wars have created vast ungoverned spaces, areas in which some experts allege that terrorist groups may train and operate. Instability also heightens human suffering and retards economic development, which may in turn threaten U.S. economic interests. Africa recently surpassed the Middle East as the United States' largest supplier of crude oil, further emphasizing the continent's strategic importance. This report provides a broad overview of U.S. strategic interests in Africa and the role of U.S. military efforts on the continent as they pertain to the creation of a new Africa Command. Although the command is still in the planning phase, a discussion of AFRICOM's potential mission, its coordination with other government agencies, and its basing and manpower requirements is included. This report will be updated as events warrant.

[Warrior-Mentor]

Inside The Pentagon
November 15, 2007
Pg. 1
Special Ops To Stand Up New Component Command Within AFRICOM
Senior military and Defense Department officials are in the process of laying the groundwork for the creation of a new special operations component command that will support the newly-minted U.S. Africa Command, DOD’s irregular warfare chief tells Inside the Pentagon.

Assistant Defense Secretary for Special Operations, Low-Intensity Conflict and Interdependent Capabilities Michael Vickers said the new Special Operations Command-Africa is in the works and is likely to be fully stood up after the overall organizational structure for AFRICOM is finalized.

“My understanding is that there will be a Special Operations Command-Africa. It would be an appropriate component of Africa Command, but the general view is that [special operations forces] will follow the command,” Vickers said during a Nov. 13 interview at the Pentagon. “It is an integral component, but we are going to stand up [AFRICOM] first and SOCAFRICA will kind of follow in.”

It is unclear as to whether or not the new SOCAFRICA component command will consist of SOF personnel pooled from special forces units at U.S. European Command or U.S. Central Command.

At press time (Nov. 14) representatives from AFRICOM’s temporary headquarters at EUCOM in Stuttgart, Germany, could not be reached for comment regarding personnel and organizational details of SOCAFRICA.

Planning for the new SOF component command comes at a time when SOCOM is planning to increase its operational component by one-third over the next five years.

Vickers said each of the five active duty Special Forces Groups within SOCOM will be increased by one battalion, beginning with the 5th Special Forces Group at Ft. Campbell, KY in fiscal year 2008. The final battalion will be added sometime in FY-12 or FY-13. Overall, the number of SOF operational battalions will increase from 15 to 20.

He added that subsequent personnel increases are also slated for SOCOM’s psychological operations and civil affairs units as well. “Significant elements of the operational force are actually increasing,” Vickers said.

However, SOF personnel attached to SOCAFRICA will not be based at any one of the five potential sites on the African continent that will house AFRICOM’s regional headquarters, Vickers said.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs Theresa Whelan, told ITP during an Oct. 9 interview that U.S. officials have begun paring down a list of African nations in five regions across the continent that could host parts of the new U.S. Africa Command (ITP, Oct. 11, p1.)

Declining to identify which African nations are on that list, Whelan said the locations selected will house “a fairly small staff” of roughly 10 to 20 command personnel at five U.S. bases in northern, southern, eastern, western and central Africa. Collectively, the selected locations will form AFRICOM’s permanent headquarters.

Noting that plans for AFRICOM’s headquarters do not include basing combat forces on the African continent, Whelan said the U.S. military footprint “will probably be relatively small.”

DOD officials are expected to have the five regional locations in Africa identified by October 2008.
While the stand up of SOCAFRICA could conceivably take place shortly after that tentative October time line, internal discussions over the component command’s creation had begun earlier this year.

Rear Adm. William McRaven, head of Special Operations Command Europe, told sister publication Inside the Navy that preliminary discussions over SOCAFRICA had begun as early as April. Currently, all special operations activities in the African region are overseen by SOCEUR.

In addition to SOCEUR, U.S. combatant commands in the Middle East, the Pacific and South America all have SOF contingents.

During the April interview, McRaven speculated that until SOCAFRICA became fully operational, EUCOM’s SOF contingent would continue to organize and conduct clandestine operations in the region.

-- Carlo Muñoz

[Penn]

I thought this may be of interest.

Reuters
Dec 13
U.S. military's Africa command alarms aid workers
By Andrew Gray
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mary Yates is deputy to the commander of the U.S. military's new Africa Command. But she has no stars on her shoulder and does not wear a uniform.
Yates is a career diplomat who has served as U.S. ambassador to Ghana and Burundi. Her appointment symbolizes the military's effort to make its newest command very different from the others and a possible model for the future.
The command, responsible for U.S. military operations in Africa, will include more diplomats, aid experts and other civilians than headquarters for other parts of the world. And they will be integral to the organization, not just advisers.
The U.S. government bills that change as an effort to make sure all its branches work together.
But the structure has alarmed aid agencies, who see the military encroaching into traditionally civilian areas such as aid work and economic development and believe armed forces should have a minimal role in those efforts.
Yates says putting more civilians in a military command is an attempt to learn from the past. The Pentagon, State Department and other U.S. agencies have often been accused of failing to cooperate or working at cross purposes.
"Clearly we have all learned a lot in the last decade from the Balkans to Afghanistan to Iraq that we need work together," she said in a telephone interview.
"Instead of having to do it ... in a battleground, we have a chance to build this structure from the ground up," Yates said from the command's current home in Stuttgart, Germany. The headquarters hopes to have a presence in Africa later.
REGIONAL COMMANDS
The U.S. military divides the world into regional commands. Previously, responsibility for Africa was split between European Command, Pacific Command and Central Command, which is the headquarters for the Middle East.
In February, President George W. Bush announced the creation of Africa Command. Known as Africom, it is being set up under European Command in Stuttgart but should become a fully independent command by October.
Some African states have criticized the move. Many Africans suspect an effort to secure mineral resources and assert U.S. interests. Major nations such as South Africa and Nigeria have said they do not want Africom on their soil.
U.S. officials have said the command's main mission will be to work with African militaries, helping them train and modernize.
But they have also said it will play a role in humanitarian operations. Bush said the command would work with Africans to "promote our common goals of development, health, education, democracy, and economic growth in Africa."
That is the kind of language that concerns aid agencies, who say development and aid efforts should be undertaken for humanitarian reasons and not tied to a military agenda.
Aid workers also say putting civilian officials inside a military command sends the wrong signal to African nations, where military forces have a history of staging coups and riding roughshod over civilian institutions.
"Our fundamental belief is that U.S. development aid towards Africa should be civilian-led," said Paul O'Brien, director of aid effectiveness at Oxfam America.
"We're worried that Africom may put a military face on what should be a non-military goal -- long-term development."
U.S. officials insist Africom has no intention of taking over the work of other agencies, it just wants to work in harmony with them. But analysts say the Pentagon unnecessarily stoked many concerns in the way it launched the headquarters.
"The command was presented as this massive integrated platform," said Jennifer Cooke, codirector of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington.
She said greater coordination between U.S. agencies was a good idea but even the appearance that the Pentagon was in charge of that process sent the wrong signals.
The command should concentrate on the core mission of building relationships with African militaries to allay concerns about its role, Cooke said.
"The military needs to stick with its value-added, what it does best," she said. "There's just plenty to be done on that front."
(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

[SF18C]

How do I say this?

I’ve been working with some folks on the Communications Architecture and way ahead for the land component. There is a lot to do before 1 Oct 2008! AND we still don’t have a name yet! USARAF, AFTAF, AFRICOM-LC??? It is pretty damn hard to make PowerPoint slides when the O’s can’t figure what to put on the title slide!

[Jack Moroney (RIP)]

Originally Posted by SF18C

How do I say this? AND we still don’t have a name yet!

Call the damn thing ZOECOM. Whatever they do they are going to have to play the tribal fanatics in the African Tribes against the Muslim Fanatics in the Magreb while paying lip service to the only serious military organization in South Africa. Seeing as how the Zoe is the single source of power in African Tribes, if you control the Zoes you control the tribes. Now try selling that

[Ret10Echo]

BBC NEWS
US shifts on Africom base plans

The US military has decided to keep the base of its new Africa Command in Germany for now, after only one African nation, Liberia, offered to host it.

Most African countries have been wary of plans to base the command, Africom, on the continent.

Africom's commander, Gen William Ward, said there were no plans to create large US garrisons on the continent.

The military command was created last year to unite responsibilities shared by three other US regional commands.

The US plan had been misunderstood by some African countries, Gen Ward told the BBC.

The key aim of Africom was to build the capacity of African countries for security and peacekeeping, he said, adding there were no plans to move the headquarters for at least a year.

African doubts

Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua announced in November that he would not allow his country to host an Africom base and that he was also opposed to any such bases in West Africa.

South Africa and Libya have also voiced strong reservations.

Only Liberia, which has historic links to the US, has offered to host it.

There has been concern that Africom is really an attempt to protect US oil and mineral interests in Africa, amid growing competition for resources from Asian economies, says the BBC's Alex Last in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

Then there are fears about the continent being drawn into the US war on terror, our correspondent adds.

Gen Ward said Africom was not about militarisation but consolidating existing operations under one single command, while helping Africans with military training and supporting peacekeeping and aid operations.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...ca/7251648.stm

Published: 2008/02/18 22:09:43 GMT

[Pete]

Originally Posted by Ret10Echo

.....Then there are fears about the continent being drawn into the US war on terror, our correspondent adds........

Yeah, right.

Like Africa is such a peaceful and happy place right now.

I'd say most of the rulers want the perks and the money but be allowed to go about their business unmolested.

[Jack Moroney (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Ret10Echo

BBC The US military has decided to keep the base of its new Africa Command in Germany for now, after only one African nation, Liberia, offered to host it.

Damn, and me having been a duly appointed paramount chief of the Khran tribe in Liberia back in the 80s. I could have had one more slash at organizing the indig

[Ret10Echo]

The peacful panacea that is Africa will be torn apart by the Yankee invader...not to mention the good Col. running around in a tall furry hat....

Yikes