home > by publication type > daily analysis > The New 'African Command'
Email
| Prepared by: |
|---|
A U.S. Army sergeant administers medicine to villagers in Djibouti. (U.S. Air Force/Lee Harshman)
For years, a debate has raged within the U.S. military about the need to reorganize its "Unified Combatant Command" system, the uniquely American prism through which the Defense Department views—and subdivides—the planet. This week, the Pentagon announced it would correct an oversight dating back to when U.S. forces pulled out of North Africa after World War II and split military jurisdiction of the African continent between U.S. European Command (EUCOM) and the Mideast-centric U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).
President Bush said the move to create a unified command "will strengthen our security cooperation with Africa and create new opportunities to bolster the capabilities of our partners in Africa." It quickly won praise from military analysts and Africa hands, who long complained that EUCOM and CENTCOM had other priorities, leaving African issues to fester. "Long overdue" writes Brett D. Schaefer of the Heritage Foundation.
With the exception of Egypt and some islands off the African coastline, AFRICOM, scheduled to be operational in 2008, will be responsible for any U.S. military activities on the continent. Though some 1,700 U.S. counterterrorism troops already are based on a former French foreign legion base in Djibouti, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Ryan Henry says there are no plans for any permanent bases on the continent, a point noted with a hint of relief in South Africa's Mail & Guardian.
While many African nations may welcome the new attention, others have expressed concern about recent U.S. military activities in Somalia, including a strike at a village last month described as an al-Qaeda haven by the military, and a sense Ethiopia's intervention received Washington's tacit approval. A Washington Post editorial describes Somalia as a "hot new front" in the war on terror. Jendayi Frazer, U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, recently told a U.S. Senate subcommittee on Africa the government will "take strong measures to deny terrorists safe haven in Somalia, as well as the ability to plan and operate from Somalia." Such talk may worry as many Africans as it reassures.
Incidentally, the U.S. plan to surge in Africa dovetails with a decision by the continent's traditional gendarme, France, to scale back its ambitions and military presence, a process explored by this new Backgrounder. Last summer, French Interior Minister Nikolas Sarkozy, a frontrunner to succeed President Jacques Chirac in April's elections, told African heads of state that Paris would be revising its policies to "rid the relationship between Africa and France of the fantasies and the myths (BBC) that pollute it."
For the U.S., however, AFRICOM will be more than a military exercise. Stephen Morrison, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says it will feature a unique interagency mix (NPR), combining intelligence, diplomatic, health and aid experts. That suggests to many a more robust effort to fight AIDS and other diseases in Africa, to encourage democratic and market economic reforms, as well as to prevent states from collapsing and providing fertile ground for terrorists. Finally, Africa stands to play an increasingly important role as a supplier of oil to America (National Interest Online) over the next few decades, with some projecting that West Africa's exports to the United States will outstrip the Middle East's by 2015.
Add oil to terrorism, and the only wonder is that AFRICOM was not born sooner.
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.
America Between the Wars explores how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.
In The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, Noah Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the sharia—the law of the traditional Islamic state—in the modern Muslim world.
Complete list of CFR Books.
This report argues that the United States must lead with domestic action on climate change and proposes a U.S. negotiating strategy for a global UN climate agreement that includes commitments from all major economies, while also promoting a less formal Partnership for Climate Cooperation that would focus the world's largest emitters on implementing aggressive emissions reductions.
This Task Force report examines changes in Latin America and in U.S. influence there, while taking account of the region's enduring importance to the United States. The Task Force offers an agenda for U.S. policy toward Latin America and identifies four critical areas that should provide the basis of a new U.S. approach.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR.
This report outlines the nature of the challenges in Pakistan's tribal areas, formulates strategies for addressing those challenges, and distills the strategies into realistic policy proposals worthy of consideration by the incoming administration.
This report analyzes the debate over U.S. use of assurances against torture, explaining the contexts in which they are used, how they can be conveyed, and what they can contain, and recommends a number of ways to respond to criticism so that the United States can continue using assurances.
Complete list of Council Special Reports.
“The Next President:” Richard Holbrooke says the next U.S. president will inherit a more difficult set of international challenges than any predecessor since World War II.
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1.800.537.5487, fax +1.410.516.6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1-212-434-9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
To request permission to reuse Council materials, please email publications@cfr.org or fax +1.212.434.9859.
Please include the complete information of the requested work—author, title, sections/pages to be copied or reprinted, and number of copies to be made—along with a brief description of where and how you would like to reuse the work.
You may also request permission for Council material through Copyright Clearance Center. For more information, please click on the link below.
Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.
