Briefing: US Africa Command: Next Step or Next Stumble?

© The Author [2008]. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal African Society. All rights reservedOxford University PressFrustration has been a leitmotif in the post-Cold War security landscape, especially regarding multinational peace building. The latest development in this landscape is the United States of America's newly established 'Africa Command' (AFRICOM), a military command responsible for all US military activity in Africa. Although AFRICOM represents a shift in US strategy towards peace building, whether AFRICOM is good for Africa remains to be seen. Recognizing that AFRICOM is still at an embryonic stage, this briefing will broadly examine its origins, the US interests informing its mission, the key peace-building lessons learned it aspires to institutionalize, and finally some early challenges that will confront this nascent command.1...The Pentagon views the world through the optic of the Unified Command Plan, which divides the world between 'Unified Combatant...