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January 04, 2007
Africa Command
After years of general speculation and months of more specific rumors, I see that the Pentagon will officially create an Africa Command. This will replace the current arrangement, whereby military responsibility for the continent is divvied up among Central Command (for the Horn of Africa), Pacific Command (for Madagascar and other Indian Ocean islands), and European Command (for all the rest).
I have two initial takes on this. First, it's a smart and long-overdue move. Rightly or wrongly, Africa is becoming an ever-more important region for U.S. foreign policy. Abundant natural resources, the threat of Islamic extremism, and growing Chinese influence will draw greater U.S. attention to Africa in the coming years, in addition to the continent's host of development challenges. Under the current arrangement, in which military responsibility for Africa is split among more established geographic commands, continent-wide policy coordination is unnecessarily difficult, and the perception of Africa as an unimportant and inconsequential region is perpetuated. In addition, this sounds promising:
Unlike in other traditional command posts, the four-star general who would be in charge of AFRICOM would probably have a civilian counterpart from the State Department to coordinate nonmilitary functions of the US government. The expectation is that diplomacy and economic and political aid will often prove more critical to achieving US goals in Africa than relying on military solutions.
In Africa, perhaps more than anywhere else, an effective policy will be one that deftly interweaves political, military, and economic components. Folks such as Robert Kaplan and Thomas Barnett have long emphasized the important and often overlooked diplomatic role played by the military combatant commands. Giving an explicit civilian face to AFRICOM would help send the message that U.S. policy toward Africa encompasses more than just a military component, and that the structural assets of a combatant command may be the most efficient way to sustain a comprehensive political and economic policy there.
Second, the creation of AFRICOM can't help but remind me of the subtle ridiculousness of the Pentagon's Unified Command Plan. Although I do not doubt its utility or even its necessity, there is something very ... imperial about dividing the world into military zones of operation.
Posted by Daniel Widome at 10:38 AM to Africa
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