Archive for June, 2008
27 June 2008
AFRICOM: The New U.S. Military Command for Africa
Daniel Volman
On 6 February 2007, President Bush announced that the United States would create a new military command for Africa, to be known as Africa Command or Africom. Throughout the Cold War and for more than a decade afterwards, the U.S. did not have a military command for Africa; instead, U.S. military activities on the African continent were conducted by three separate military commands: the European Command, which had responsibility for most of the continent; the Central Command, which oversaw Egypt and the Horn of Africa region along with the Middle East and Central Asia; and the Pacific Command, which administered military ties with Madagascar and other islands in the Indian Ocean.
27 June 2008
Why Is The Pentagon Marching Into Africa?
Daniel Volman
On February 6, 2007, President Bush announced that the Pentagon would create a new military command for Africa—to be known as AFRICOM—thus significantly raising the continent’s status in American military strategy. Few Americans even noticed at the time and most are still unaware of this startlingly dangerous development. So why is this new military command being created? Why is it being created at this time? What does it mean for Africa? And what does it mean for America, for America’s access to Africa’s oil, for America’s security from terrorism, and for the future of the men and women who serve in America’s armed services?
