Africom Stands Up 2006-2017

[TROUFION]

There was talk at the begining of the establishment of JTF HOA, when AFRICOM started looking like a possibility, of establishing the senior position in AFRICOM as a psuedo-proconsul. This position would be the senior Civilian Ambassador for the continent, to subordinate all the other Ambassdors to the one. It was/is a radical idea that the DoS would most likely have trouble digesting. BUT it would lend Unity of command and much needed credibility to the AFRICOM combined DoD-DoS concept.

And talking of Unity of Effort, I have always thought Unity of Effort was developed by those folks out there who have never been in command, who want to protect fiefdoms, turf, and who do not want to be subordinate to anyone. Unity of Command is what it is, the best method to organize a unified action in any and all environments. The argument of complex situations never held water with me. There always has to be a single position of command to break impasses and to ensure a unified methodology, a single intent.

[Tom Odom]

There was talk at the begining of the establishment of JTF HOA, when AFRICOM started looking like a possibility, of establishing the senior position in AFRICOM as a psuedo-proconsul. This position would be the senior Civilian Ambassador for the continent, to subordinate all the other Ambassdors to the one. It was/is a radical idea that the DoS would most likely have trouble digesting. BUT it would lend Unity of command and much needed credibility to the AFRICOM combined DoD-DoS concept.

That would be a radical step and one that would run up against the reality of political appointee ambassadors versus career foreign service officers very quickly. The closest we came to having a "pro-consul" in the Rwandan saga was the appointment of Ambassador Richard Bogosian as the "Presidential Envoy to the Great Lakes Region," much like Phillip Habib to the Middle East in the Reagan years. Ambassador Bogosian was able to get some cross-border cooperation going between embassies but it was often a tough sell. Burundi was a problem with the Ambassador there a political appointee. He by the way has a book out this year from University of Texas Press with a chapter dedicated to my behavior as a conspirator envoy of the US Department of Defense. Zaire (Congo) was another problem but in this case a career foreign service officer ambassador who had been chief of mission elsewhere.

I offer all of this because while I believe strongly that Africa Command is a great idea and one long overdue, I have no expectations that a sudden spirit of cooperation is going to blossum between the agencies. To the contrary, there will be (and already is) a backlash of suspicion/angst and general urinating on fire hydrants behavior by the various players because DoD has long minimized its interest in the continent. Creating a command signals a change in attitude and that creates tensions.

Best

Tom

[John T. Fishel]

The notion of a DOS counterpart to a combattant commander has been around a long time. I remember it well from the 1980s in Central America. Seemed logical to all of us DOD types. Unfortunately, it runs counter to the desires of both the host country governments and the American ambassadors. No host government is going to do business with the US Regional Ambassador; it will expect to do business with the US through the President's personal rep to the country ie the Ambassador.

You can only get interagency unity of command if the President names a commander with the authority to hire and fire his interagency subordinates. (He also needs to be willing to exercise that authority.) In the absence of that authority, the only thing left is coordination to, hopefully, achieve unity of effort. I would like to see commanders named so that unity of command could be achieved but I have yet to see a President willing to impose that kind of authority - except to ambassadors through the post -JFK appointment letter.

[bourbon]

Esquire, 6/11/2007: The Americans Have Landed, By Thomas P.M. Barnett

A few years ago, with little fanfare, the United States opened a base in the horn of Africa to kill or capture Al Qaeda fighters. By 2012, the Pentagon will have two dozen such forts. The story of Africa Command, the American military's new frontier outpost.