Pax Americana, Africa

The implementation of what could be called the Bush doctrine's Pax Americana, Africa was outlined in a September 28, 2003, article by Mark Mazzetti in US News & World Report:


 * "At Hurso military compound outside Dire Dawa, soldiers from the Army's 10th Mountain Division have built a makeshift camp on the African plains, where camels, hyenas, and baboons roam freely. Their mission is counterterrorism, training the Ethiopian military to begin rolling up the human networks that for years have roamed just as freely in the loosely governed expanses of East Africa...."


 * "'What is underway means far more than simply moving troops and tanks around the globe like a real-world game of Risk. What the military is grappling with is how to put into practice the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive military action. 'It is not good enough any longer for the Department of Defense to say we fight and win the nation's wars,' says retired Vice Adm. Arthur K. Cebrowski, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's guru heading up the Pentagon's Office of Force Transformation. 'We also have to say we dissuade military competition and we prevent wars from happening--and then posture ourselves around the world to do that.'"


 * "Without another nation expected to challenge U.S. military supremacy in the near future, strategic planners now concern themselves with threats along what they call the 'arc of instability,' a swath of territory running from the Caribbean Basin through most of Africa, the Middle East, and Central and Southeast Asia. It is countries along this arc--often failed states--that U.S. officials argue have been left far behind as the rest of the world is brought into the global economy."


 * The plan was to defend forward--"moving troops and equipment into these areas in order to respond more rapidly to global crises--and to pre-empt attacks by an elusive foe that can move easily through ungoverned deserts and teeming cities" and to move quickly, with a "new focus" "placed on more-austere forward bases, ports, and airstrips closer to potential flash points, such as the bases in Djibouti, Kirgizstan, and Uzbekistan."


 * "New bases also mean new listening posts in parts of the world where the United States has had difficulty gathering intelligence." At Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, "civilian and military intelligence analysts sift through information gathered by satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles, and human sources to map out the terrorist threat in the Horn of Africa."


 * "Sitting in his office at Camp Lemonier, the unit's commander often sounds more like the president of the World Bank than a Marine Corps general. 'You have the stewardship to do more than just kick butt,' General Robeson says. 'That's not the long-term solution. The long-term solution is nation building.'"


 * "Moreover, many generals cringe when outside experts argue that the military must become more like the CIA--operating unmolested in sovereign countries worldwide."


 * "Washington also has its eye on valuable economic interests that U.S. forces may be used to protect. Nigeria, currently the fifth-largest supplier of oil to the United States, is expected to boost production dramatically over the next decade and help relieve the United States of its dependence on Saudi Arabian oil. Of equal concern is a pipeline running from the oil-rich Caspian Sea through Azerbaijan and Georgia to the Mediterranean Sea, expected to be completed by 2005. The new bases in Eastern Europe, Pentagon officials argue, will allow U.S. forces to better protect the Caspian pipeline from terrorist attack."

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa
 * Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa Headlines and Timeline
 * globalization
 * Iraq's oil industry
 * Libya
 * Libyan oil industry
 * military-industrial complex
 * Office of Net Assessment
 * Pax Americana
 * Saudi Arabia
 * Saudi Arabian oil industry
 * Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism Initiative

External articles

 * "Sleeping Giants Begin To Waken To Africa," MSNBC News, July 10, 2003.
 * "Rumsfeld pushes U.S. ties in N. Africa," Associated Press (CNN), February 12, 2006.