AFRICOM The U.S. Military in Africa

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AFRICOMThe U.S. Military in Africa
ALABO, Equatorial Guinea (February 01, 2008)
Navy Lieutenant Phillip McCorvey and a member of
the local Equatorial Guinea soccer team exchange
soccer balls signed by the members of each team.
Sporting events are one of the ways in which
Africa Partnership Station (APS) is creating
partnerships through West and Central Africa. As
part of the Navy's new cooperative maritime
strategy, APS is a multi-national effort to bring
the latest training and techniques to maritime
professionals in West and Central Africa. (U.S.
Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Brian
Goyak)
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U.S. Military Command structure
The United States is the only state which divides
the entire globe into military commands with a
general or admiral in command of each region and
designated forces.
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What is a military command?
A Unified Combatant Command (UCC) is a United
States joint military command composed of forces
from two or more services, has a broad and
continuing mission, and is organized either on a
geographical basis (known as "Area Of
Responsibility", AOR) or on a functional basis.
All UCCs are commanded by either a four star
general or admiral and are considered "joint"
commands with specific badges denoting their
affiliation (Wikipedia)
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What does a UCC do?
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What is AFRICOM?
U.S. Africa Command will better enable the
Department of Defense and other elements of the
U.S. government to work in concert and with
partners to achieve a more stable environment in
which political and economic growth can take
place. U.S. Africa Command is consolidating the
efforts of three existing headquarters commands
into one that is focused solely on Africa and
helping to coordinate US government contributions
on the continent. AFRICOM web site.
General Kip Ward
This new command will strengthen our security
cooperation with Africa and create new
opportunities to bolster the capabilities of our
partners in Africa. Africa Command will enhance
our efforts to bring peace and security to the
people of Africa and promote our common goals of
development, health, education, democracy, and
economic growth in Africa." President Bush, Feb.
2007
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How will AFRICOM function
The Pentagon calls Africom a unified combatant
command, meaning a command that combines
military and civil functions. Though Africom will
be led by a top-ranking four-star military
general, unlike other regional commands, its
deputy commander will be a State Department
official. The current transition team of about
sixty peoplewhich is largely militarywill form
the core of Africoms headquarters staff, but
Moeller anticipates there will eventually be
several hundred personnel when the command
becomes operational in September 2008. Africom
aims to bring together intelligence, diplomatic,
health and aid experts. Staff will be drawn from
all branches of the military, as well as USAID
and the departments of state, agriculture,
treasury, and commerce. These nonmilitary staff
may be funded with money from their own
departments as well as the DOD. The Pentagon has
touted the new interagency structure of Africom,
but experts question whether the command will be
any different than other regional commands in
execution. The small size of other government
offices in comparison to the military means that
it may be difficult to hire enough nonmilitary
staff. Council on Foreign Relations
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Why AFRICOM now?

• Pentagon wants to increase focus on Africa EUCOM
  did not pay attention
• Window of opportunity to stand up between
  resignation of Rumsfeld and arrival of Gates at
  DOD
• Bureaucratic opportunity to further expand
  military activities and capture resources
• Corporate opportunity to get a piece of the
  action in Africa (including creation of African
  Union)
• U.S. strategic interests in Africawhich are
  largely left unmentioned in most of the official
  literature

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Africa is a continent that is extremely rich in
strategic materials, including oil, but is also
riven by major conflicts that obstruct access to
those resources.
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The Peoples Republic of China is increasing its
economic and assistance activity across Africa,
which worries many strategic analysts
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The Northern part of Africa, some fear, is part
of the mythical New Caliphate, and the Sahara
and Sahel are regarded as ungoverned spaces
open to terrorists
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UNCLASSIFIED
AFRICOM Focus Countries
53 Total Countries 42 in EUCOM AOR 10 Priority
Partners 7 Cooperation Countries
UNCLASSIFIED
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UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED
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USAfrican Exercises
UNCLASSIFIED

• African Exercise Program
• Disaster Preparedness
• NATURAL FIRE
• C4I
• AFRICA ENDEAVOR
• Special Forces
• FLINTLOCK
• CT Training
• SHARED ACCORD
• Medical Training
• MEDFLAG
• Naval Forces
• West African Training Cruise

AFRICAN LION MEDSHARK
ATLAS EAGLE ATLAS DROP
US Special Forces Training Exercises
BRIGHT STAR
FLINTLOCK SOF Training
NATURAL FIRE
SHARED ACCORD
MEDFLAG
WEST AFRICAN TRAINING CRUISE (WATC)
AFRICA ENDEAVOR
UNCLASSIFIED
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UNCLASSIFIED
Africas Swahili Coast

• West Indian Ocean region
• Abundant natural resources
• Developing region with growing US investment
• Increasing importance in WOT as safe haven for
  terror elements
• Fragile stability, poor security
• Over 18 billion in lost revenue from fishery
  violations in Tanzania alone
• Significant deficiencies in coastal defense and
  maritime security capabilities

Seychelles
Areas of Naval influence
UNCLASSIFIED
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UNCLASSIFIED
Africas Gulf of Guinea

• Gulf of Guinea
• Abundant natural resources
• Top producer of light, sweet crude
• Accelerating foreign investment
• Direct access to EU and US oil refineries
• Fragile stability, poor security
• Significant deficiencies in coastal defense and
  maritime security capabilities

Cameroon
Nigeria
Ghana
Togo
DROC
Benin
Sao Tome and Principe
Angola
Equatorial Guinea
Gabon
Republic of the Congo
UNCLASSIFIED
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Annenberg School of Communication, Center for
Public Diplomacy
Ambassador Mary Carlin Yates, AFRICOM Deputy to
the Commander for Civil-Military ActivitiesMajor
General Herbert L. Altshuler, AFRICOM Director of
Strategy, Plans and Programs Ambassador Mark
Bellamy, Fellow at the Center for Strategic and
International StudiesAmb. Brian Carlson,
State-DoD Liaison in the Office of the
Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and
Public AffairsMr. Ryan Henry, Principal Deputy
Undersecretary of Defense Ms. Nicole Lee,
Executive Director of the TransAfrica ForumMr.
Mark Malan, Peacebuilding Program Officer at
Refugees InternationalAmbassador Charles A.
Minor, Liberian Ambassador to the United States
Consul General Jeanette Ndhlovu, Consul General
of South AfricaDr. Abiodun Williams, Associate
Dean of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies
at the National Defense University
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What is public diplomacy?
"Public Diplomacy seeks to promote the national
interest of the United States through
understanding, informing and influencing foreign
audiences." PUBLIC DIPLOMACY refers to
government-sponsored programs intended to inform
or influence public opinion in other countries
its chief instruments are publications, motion
pictures, cultural exchanges, radio and
television." "Public diplomacy . . . deals with
the influence of public attitudes on the
formation and execution of foreign policies. It
encompasses dimensions of international relations
beyond traditional diplomacy the cultivation by
governments of public opinion in other countries
the interaction of private groups and interests
in one country with those of another the
reporting of foreign affairs and its impact on
policy communication between those whose job is
communication, as between diplomats and foreign
correspondents and the processes of
inter-cultural communications. Central to public
diplomacy is the transnational flow of
information and ideas."
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What is AFRICOMs structure?

• Currently based in Stuttgart, Germany, with about
  300 people on staff
• Seeking a site for a small headquarters in
  Africaonly Liberia has lobbied and a decision
  has been put off for now due to African doubts
  and opposition
• There would be four levels to AFRICOM
• The headquarters, which will reach back to the
  U.S.
• AFRICOM reps in 29 of 53 U.S. embassies in Africa
• Representatives in African organizations (AU,
  ECOWAS)
• Operating bureaucracy of 1300 (mostly off the
  continent)
• AFRICOM proposes to coordinate and oversee U.S.
  financial military assistance and aid projects
  in Africa

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What insights were offered at the Conference?

• AFRICOM is a brandit is not a kinetic form of
  military intervention
• It is meant to keep U.S. combat troops off the
  continent for at least the next half century
• It is intended to build civil society and to
  bring added value to Africa
• It is an arsenal of persuasion for helping
  Africans solve African problems
• It is not an instrument for pursuing U.S.
  strategic interests in Africaalthough threat is
  very real
• It is an experiment in soft power to keep
  Africa from being a drain

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What questions remain open?

• Can the Departments of Defense and State actually
  work together on AFRICOM?
• What is AFRICOMs budget?
• Startup about 270 million
• 2007-08 about 75 million
• 2009 389 million
• Some estimates are in the billions of dollars
• Annual U.S. expenditures in Africa 9 billion?
• AFRICOM is being touted in Soldier of Fortune and
  other private military contractor industry
  publications as ushering in a bountiful new job
  market.