Quote Originally Posted by ganulv View Post
My significant other is away to the African Studies Association meeting and it occurred to me to browse the program to see how many presenters are taking AFRICOM as their topic. Only two, it turns out, both of whom list Africa Command as their affiliation. I suspect that runs counter to some folks’ perception of perceptions in a couple of ways.

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Commanding Africa (Saturday 1415–1615)

Chair: William Minter, AfricaFocus

Liza Briggs, US Africa Command – “US Africa Command: a socio-cultural lens on military engagement”

Ibrahim Ndzesop, University of Paris I – “Mercenaries and military manpower in African history: when do states use mercenaries?”

Stephen Harmon, Pittsburgh State University – “Kidnapping and contraband: al-Qaeda in the Sahara-Sahel region and its implications for regional policy”

Maureen Farrell, US Africa Command – “Gender mainstreaming with African militaries: a role for AFRICOM?”

Discussant: William Minter, AfricaFocus
Interesting for a couple of reasons. First, it kind of stands out that the only official US representation is from AFRICOM... no AID, no DoS. That kind of matches what KingJaja said about the US presenting a military-dominated face... you'd think they'd want to balance out a bit by sending at least one from the civilian side, though it may just be a matter of insufficient interest.

Second, the topics chosen by the AFRICOM speakers seem intentionally bland. Given the range of issues confronting African militaries and the range of problems presented by civil/military relations, a discussion of "gender mainstreaming with African militaries" seems deliberately peripheral.

I'm not sure we do ourselves any favors by backing away from major issues, even if those issues are controversial and present few really good options. I'd like to see more discussion on issues like... well for example: given that human rights abuse is the norm, rather than the exception, for many African militaries, what's a more effective way to improve that situation, isolation and exclusion of offenders or an attempt to engage and influence?

Of course nobody really has a good answer to that question, because there is no really good answer to that question... but it doesn't hurt to let people know we're thinking about it and soliciting opinions for consideration.