I've been reading this thread for a while and, although I don't believe that organizational change is really the answer to anything, it can facilitate the resolution of some problems. For this reason, if for no other, I welcome the creation of Africa Command. Among the things wit will accomplish are:

1. Put DoD and DoS on the same regional sheet of music. It aligns the regional unified commands with with State's regional bureaus - at long last (and with the partial exception of NORTHCOM/SOUTHCOM - WHA.
2. It will make it easier to coordinate among OSD, the Joint Staff, AFRICOM, Africa Bureau, AID. CIA, and others.
3. It will make life much, much easier for DoD's Africa Center for Security Studies and give it a single unified command master.

AFRICOM certainly provides a new opportunity to focus more and coordinate policy more effectively on an important region.