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Is the African Command an altruistic effort to stop humanitarian ravages or a hypocritical attempt at regional hegemony?

The New Africa Command: A Hedge Against Neocolonialism or a True Agent of Change? By Cmdr. Gregory E. Glaros, USN (Ret.)

When AFRICOM is established as an "interagency" command, and a U.S. State Department official acts as its deputy, what will the U.S. Commerce Department contribute? How will non-governmental organizations (NGOs) participate since they have the greatest insight into widespread troubles?

Will NGOs have a say in crafting intervention strategies? Can these combined, organizationally diverse voices divert future disaster? The Defense Department is an institution keenly, if not uniquely, capable of recognizing strategic interests, but can it alone provide regional stability by fostering economic development?

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Submitted by William G. Dwyer (not verified) on Fri, 01/16/2015 - 17:18

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I agree with Cdr. Glaros' bottom-line assessment that AFRICOM must be focused on economic development and representative governments. The best model to follow for this is to be found in Thomas P. M. Barnett's "The Pentagon's New Map" and its sequel "A Strategy for Implementating: A Future Worth Creating." This sane, comprehensive approach would use the G8 as the locus of international agreement about identifying "bad actor" governments (ultimately the G20 as China, India, a united Korea, etc. buy into the new rule sets for spreading the economic benefits of globalization)followed by Special Forces types to get rid of fanatics and despots,and sufficient boots on the ground (economic development experts, representative government experts, NGO and Peace Corps experts and volunteers)to secure the peace.

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