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KIGALI, Rwanda, 

Jan 22, 2012 — General Carter Ham, commander of U.S. Africa Command, delivered opening remarks to representatives from 11 East African nations during a conference on Preventing Youth Radicalization in East Africa, January 22, 2012. The conference, co-sponsored by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies and the government of Rwanda, explored whole-of-government approaches to preventing extremist recruitment of youth in the Horn of Africa.

Ham expressed to the audience the importance of the conference, stating that there is a correlation between youth radicalization and the security environment in Africa.

"We recognize that to effectively address the challenges in Africa and to help Africa's youth succeed and build their future, a coordinated response is required amongst our respective government agencies, not just American, but with our African nations' partners as well, as well as other regional and international partners such as the African Union, NATO, the European Union, to name just a few," he added.

The event brought together 47 participants from African countries, the United States, Europe, and civil society groups.

For complete coverage on the conference and to view videos of keynote addresses from U.S., Rwandan, and African Union distinguished representatives, visit Africa Center for Strategic Studies.

The complete transcript of General Ham's remarks is included below:

GENERAL CARTER F. HAM: Thank you very much, Ambassador Bellamy. I think you could summarize Ambassador Bellamy's introduction by simply saying I'm an old soldier. But thanks for you and for the center for organizing this great forum and for addressing a very, very important issue. And you can't do that alone, and I, like you am very appreciative of the efforts of our Chargé Ann Casper and the entire U.S. country team, and especially of the co-hosts from Rwanda who have enabled and allowed this conference to occur and to continue.

To Ambassador Bellamy's point about while I've been a soldier for a long time, you will note that as he cited a number of places that I have served and positions that I have held, you did not hear about service in Africa. And for the United States military, for the most part, Africa has not been an area where we have focused our energies and our efforts for quite some time.

Yes, we have an extraordinarily competent, capable, and experienced corps of officers whom we call Foreign Area Officers who focus specifically on African security matters and on African U.S. security relationships. But in the larger context, frankly, Africa has not been in the U.S. military consciousness a great deal, certainly not in the time that I have been growing up in the military. That's changing. I would argue it has changed, and there is a very clear recognition in the United States military that Africa matters. It matters on a global scale and it certainly matters to the United States and hence to the United States military. I think a fair question to ask, as you look across this audience and you see a number of different uniforms here -- why is it that the senior military leaders of a number of different nations are interested at all in this conference about youth radicalization. Well, I think, speaking from my own point of view is that there is a recognition amongst senior military officers that there is a direct correlation between youth radicalization and the security environment, which we in the military are charged with enhancing and enforcing.

So this is an important conference for us, and I suspect most of the military leaders in this room, like me, are here mostly to listen and to learn and to find ways in which our militaries from a number of different nations may be able to contribute with our unique capabilities to a significant challenge that is emerging, that of youth radicalization across the continent but specifically here in East Africa.

If I might take a moment to talk a little bit about who we at U.S. Africa Command are and what it is that we are charged with accomplishing here, because I think there is some discussion about what we do, and, frankly, what we don't do.

To put it simply, the mission of United States Africa Command is to help strengthen the defense capabilities of African partners in ways in which they would like us to help. In other words, to bring the unique military capabilities of the United States military to bear in ways of partnership and cooperation with our African partners, again, in ways in which they would like us to help. And secondly, a second part of our mission, obviously, is to advance the security interests of the United States in Africa. We are, after all, an American institution, and so you'll be unsurprised to learn that our focus is on achieving America's national objectives here in Africa.

[Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Karl Wycoff] outlined those for you, and they entail at the top of the list fostering democratization and good governance, continued economic progress, improving public health-related issues, preventing and resolving conflicts, and addressing the many transnational challenges that extend across the continent. What's important for that is that as you look at those objectives, those are not inherently military objectives. Yet, the military has an important role because in order for those objectives to be achieved, there must be an underlying condition of stability and security, and I think that's where the military comes in. We are a supporting role, not necessarily a leading role in achieving our collective interests. Another way to say that might be to say that the military is an essential, but perhaps non-decisive, component of confronting violent extremism across Africa.

We have our role to play, but the military by itself will not achieve any of our nations' or any regional organizations' objectives. Our activities at United States Africa Command are guided by two over-arching principles. These will not be surprises to you. The first principle is simply that a safe, stable, secure Africa is in the best interest not only of African states but of the United States of America as well. The second principle is one that has been longstanding for America but was mostly recently espoused by President Obama in Ghana in 2009, when he stated very clearly that it is Africans who are best able in the long-run to address African security matters. That's important for us at U.S. Africa Command. Obviously, President Obama is our commander in chief; we're going to do what he tells us to do, and when he tells us that it's important for Africans to be in the lead, we take that to heart. What that means is, again, that our role is to find ways in which the United States military may, in a supporting role, assist our African partners in achieving their objectives.

If I might talk about just a few of the activities in which we are engaged across the continent, and most of these are small ways. It is uncommon to see large scale U.S. military presence in Africa. Nor is large scale U.S. military presence in Africa necessary or appropriate. Rather, we think we are most effective when we apply our resources and our capabilities perhaps a little more quietly and a little smaller scale than in some other ways. Our engagements span the full range of activities from small teams instructing basic military skills to large-scale multinational exercises such as we've conducted over the past year or so. One of the bottom lines for us is that it does not take a lot of people to make a big difference.

In fact, several of our military activities in Africa are conducted with just a small number of military personnel. As an example, last year a small number of American sailors assigned to our [Combined] Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, based in Djibouti, partnered with a Kenyan explosive ordnance disposal instructors and more than 30 trainees during a humanitarian mine action program in Nairobi, building the capability of those host nation forces to deal with a threat that many of you are more familiar with than I am, and that is the enduring presence of mines in many parts of Africa.

The U.S. Africa Command focuses on disaster response preparedness. We conducted an exercise recently in Tanzania focusing on medical skills, maintenance and military intelligence training across the land, sea, and air components of military forces, so that those forces are better prepared to respond to natural or manmade disasters.

We tailor our engagement programs with each nation recognizing that each nation has its own unique set of circumstances. So there is not, as Mr. Wycoff said, and Ambassador Bellamy has highlighted, there is not a one-size-fits-all. We seek to engage regionally as well, recognizing that building regional capacity is an important way for us to leverage our activities. We do this in terms of, again, regional exercises where we focus on communications and operations interoperability, and we have done that in a number of places across the continent over the past year.

I would urge you also to think of us as a long-term partner. We're interested in continued development and increasing the capabilities of our partners. We want this to be a sustained relationship. It may ebb and flow and it sometimes may be more important than others, but it's important for us - for you - to know that we're here for the long haul and seek to be an enduring partner with our African militaries.

As we talk about youth radicalization, much of the focus I suspect in your deliberations will be about Somalia. The United States military is not present in Mogadishu, but we do, however, have an important role in training the African Union Mission in Somalia forces who do operate inside Somalia. Again, I think that's an appropriate role for us in a way in which we can make a difference, and we hope to continue to be able to do that.

We recognize that to effectively address the challenges in Africa and to help Africa's youth succeed and build their future, a coordinated response is required amongst our respective government agencies, not just American, but with our African nations' partners as well, as well as other regional and international partners such as the African Union, NATO, the European Union to name just a few. I applaud the efforts of the African Union dialoging with and recognizing the importance of youth empowerment. We in the military need to listen and learn from that and understand what our appropriate role can be in countering youth radicalization.

I conclude by coming back to a statement that Chairperson Ping [Chairperson of the African Union Commission Dr. Jean Ping] made last year on African Youth Day. I think he in one sentence encapsulated really what we in this room are here for today, and Chairperson Ping said that, "Youth are the builders of tomorrow and the players of the present." I think that's true across the world. I think it's especially true here in Africa and notably important here in East Africa. The United States Africa Command is happy to be part of this conference and to play our appropriate role in addressing this important issue well into the future. Thank you.