Misguided Intentions: Resisting Africom
By Captain Moussa Diop Mboup, Sengalese Army, Michael Mihalka, Ph.D. and Major Douglas Lathrop, U.S. Army, Retired
Media reaction to AFRICOM throughout Africa was tough. In Johannesburg, the Business Daily protested, "The expansion of an American strategic geopolitical military base on the continent will worsen many of the problems Africa has at present." Le Reporter in Algiers said, "The African countries should wake up after seeing the scars of others (Iraq and Afghanistan)." And
Dulue Mbachu, a Nigerian journalist, lamented: "Increased U.S. military presence in Africa may simply serve to protect unpopular regimes that are friendly to its interests, as was the case during the Cold War, while Africa slips further into poverty." The African blogosphere also reacted quite negatively, seeing AFRICOM as a springboard for further U.S. exploitation of the continent and interference in their domestic affairs.
Many African officials have had nothing better to say. Abdullahi Alzubedi, the Libyan ambassador to South Africa, declared to a journalist: How can the U.S. divide the world up into its own military commands' Wasn't that for the United Nations to do' What would happen if China also decided to create its Africa command' Would this not lead to conflict on the continent'
The Increasing Influence of China
The increasing influence of China provides African nations with an alternative that, at least in the near term, is in many ways much more appealing. This has tremendous importance for U.S. Africa policy.
The African continent has become one of the key battlegrounds of the upcoming "Cold War" between the United States and China. Therefore, the resistance to an increased American engagement in the continent is an early sign of an emerging fight over zones of influence. In that fight, China's pragmatic, opportunistic political warfare strategy is winning the first rounds. (China has pursued a similarly successful strategy in Central Asia.)
Russia, too, might become a player. Gazprom, the Russian gas firm, is competing to take over gas fields abandoned by Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria. Several Chinese firms have also expressed interest in fields in Ogoniland that contain gas reserves estimated at 10 trillion cubic meters.
Africans and most journalists find as disingenuous the continuing U.S. denials that AFRICOM has nothing to do with China. One of the first questions asked in June 2008 of the then assistant secretary of defense for Africa policy, Theresa Whelan, was, "Why was China missing from her briefing'" She responded:
It was missing for a reason, because this isn't about China. Everybody seems to want it to be about China and maybe that is a little nostalgia for the Cold War, I don't know. But it isn't about China. It is about U.S. security interests in Africa in the context of global security. China, yes, has become more engaged in Africa, both-primarily for economic reasons. They have interests in African natural resources and extracting those resources. They also have interests in African markets. That's fine. The United States isn't concerned with Chinese economic competition. I mean, we're a capitalist nation. We're built on the principle of competition. So that is not really an issue for us.
Africans simply do not believe this, and neither do many Americans.
A 2007 briefing making the rounds in Africa lists four common perceptions of U.S. reasons for AFRICOM: Africa's natural resources, its democracy deficit, the increasing presence of China, and terrorism. Other analysts say directly: "The Pentagon claims that AFRICOM is all about integrating coordination and 'building partner capacity.' But the new structure is really about securing oil resources, countering terrorism, and rolling back Chinese influence."
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https://www.army.mil/article/35036/misg ... ng_africom