By General William E. Ward, commander of U.S. Africa Command
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BOSTON, Massachusetts, 

Oct 22, 2008 — Included below is the transcript of a speech given by General William E. Ward, commander of U.S. Africa Command, at Boston University on October 22, 2008. The speech was delivered live at a luncheon hosted at Boston University and also broadcast to Morgan State University, Morehouse College, and Elizabeth State University. At the end of the speech, each university audience asked two questions on topics such as U.S. Africa Command's role in Darfur; the effect of the U.S. presidential election outcome on the command; methods used to monitor progress on Africa Command's goals; and how people can join the U.S. Africa Command team.

GENERAL WILLIAM E. WARD: Thank you very much. Thanks a lot. You know, it's really a privilege to be here. Ambassador, thank you for those great remarks. If my mom were here and she is thankfully still with us she'd look around the corner there and say, who are you talking about? I kind of figure that myself sometimes who is he talking about?

Let me welcome all of you today and let you know how pleased I am that you are here. I feel a bit overwhelmed because of this distinguished group of folk who have come to listen to this simple soldier talk a little bit about what he does in service to nation as a part of a great, great team.

And in that light, I'm just happy to see so many youngsters who have made a decision to follow a similar path. To the ROTC cadets and your staff and faculty, congratulations. Thanks for being here and bless you for what you do in stepping up to address this very, very important service that our nation needs as we continue to move forward to be a great nation. And doing it in this particular way, I think is especially noteworthy and commendable.

As was mentioned, obviously, this is a wide-ranging setting and so those who are out tuning in via the video teleconference at Morehouse, Elizabeth City State, and my alma mater, Morgan State, welcome to you as well. Go Bears. (Laughter.)

Ambassador Stith, again, thanks for those very, very kind remarks. I guess what it really indicated was I'm an old man. I've been at this a long time and the good news in it all, I'm still enjoying what I do. I'm still having fun, and as I'm sometimes I won't say counseled, but folks say, General, why do you feel so optimistic about what you're doing and the part of what you're doing? My response is, were I not optimistic, my two bosses and I've arrived at a level now where I have three; my wife is the boss, too. (Laughter.)

My two bosses, the president of the United States and the Secretary of Defense, ought to fire me were I not optimistic. So I remain optimistic not because of fear that I'd be fired, but because I am truly, after now given the fact that you (unintelligible) that you said I graduated from Morgan in 1971 and been a soldier ever since. That was 37 years ago, and I've just decided to make the Army a career because I have (unintelligible). (Laughter.)

I'm very humbled to have been invited by Ambassador Stith on behalf of the team here at Boston University and the African Presidential Archives and Research Center to share my perspective on the United States Africa Command's role and purpose on the continent and vision for its future. It was pointed out that the command has been in existence since 1 October, 2007, as a sub-unified command of U.S. European Command. I'm proud to tell you that as of 1 October, 2008, it is a unified command no longer a sub-unified, but a unified command one of our nation's sixth geographic unified commands.

You, current leaders, future leaders, who will make and will continue to make your mark on the world for the next few decades are important, important, important. You have a role to play on this global team that we are all members of. Perhaps some of my perspectives will go towards fostering thought and discussion in your studies as well as your endeavors and the work that you do following the address today. So I'm very happy that my schedule did, in fact, allow me to be able to come here and make a few comments to you.

First, let me begin by congratulating Boston University's African Studies Center for its significant contributions and international reputation for excellence in teaching and conducting research on Africa since 1953. Additionally, in its relatively recent establishment under the guidance and direction of Ambassador Stith, the African and Presidential Archives and the Research Center provides a necessary and credible forum for African leaders to continue to contribute to the improvement of Africa and broadens the world's understanding of Africa's challenges and opportunities. Your work is important - it makes us all better and that is why this institution is at the front of the line and the key enabler to securing our global future. I commend you for all your efforts.

Now, you may want to know why is a four-star commander of United States Africa Command, here in front of you today and what is it that he is going to say that will be important for me? I don't have a clue. I'm going to talk, and if it resonates, then great. I really do know what the deal is, though.

As I mentioned, the first of October marked a historic moment in our nation's military history: the achievement of full unified command status for the United States Africa Command, our sixth unified combatant command. The ceremony that we held in the Pentagon just three weeks ago to commemorate the achievement of unified command status was special, and not just because we unfurled the new flag that officially declared the command as activated, but because of who else took part in the ceremony and why.

Within minutes of the command's activation, the defenselink website posted a photograph on its home page. On it were the usual suspects that included me, the command sergeant major, the flag bearer and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and Ms. Henrietta Fore, the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, who also, by the way, was representing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. And if you happened to be watching, you may have been thinking, Department of State, USAID flags on the dais with military flags. Why would they be a part of a military ceremony?

Well, here is why. Ms. Fore gave a very passionate speech about the important link that exists between security and development, especially in the context of Africa, and that she and her agency are committed to being a part of the United States Africa Command. Ms. Fore stated, we expect AFRICOM to substantially contribute to African defense sector reform and to build African partner capability and capacities in peacekeeping, in coastal and border security, and counterterrorism.

To that effort, she mentioned that to AFRICOM we are assigning five officers, including two of our most senior, and this marks a real change for the way things were just a few short years, and signaled a clear change within our organizational structure significant statements, my friends, indicating strong support at the highest level for a new way of executing United States foreign policy in order to better secure global stability and security.

From inception, the U.S. Africa Command was intended to be a command designed to address new challenges confronting the United States. Our approach is nontraditional, and we are integrating interagency and Department of Defense civilians into the structure of U.S. Africa Command to facilitate and improve both planning and execution of our military-to-military duties. The challenges presented in Africa require more than military expertise. And the incorporation of other U.S. government agencies into the structure of U.S. Africa Command allows us to bring a whole-of-government approach to the pursuit of U.S. national security and foreign-policy objectives.

We needed the expertise of the interagency, people who have been on the ground working in Africa for a long time. They know the territory. And while our military program performed heretofore by three separate commands, the European Command, the Southern Pacific Command, and U.S. Central Command, I know that having the work done by them has been good work.

Everyone in the Department of Defense knew that we could do things better if we were structured and reorganized in a way that leveraged the expertise of our interagency partners as well, and that's precisely what has happened. We have senior officers from several agencies, full-time and temporary duty, on our staff: Homeland Security, FBI, Treasury, Commerce, Agriculture, Energy and others.

We listen and we learn from one another. We gained an appreciation of their activities and capability, and about how our military activities affect them and what they do, vice versa, and we're learning how to do our mission better. Teamwork that's what this is about. That's what it took to build the whole unified command that we have today our work being done not to do the work of those agencies, but to do our work better, knowing what their work is so we can be as supportive and complementary in those efforts as we can possibly be.

I believe that today I am addressing you individuals here who possess the same core values and desires that I'm used to working with. I've been looking forward to making this trip here and this address. I'm really, really glad that I've had the opportunity to be here.

Let me talk a bit about U.S. Africa Command's area of responsibility, or AOR, which includes the entire African continent with the exception of Egypt and I'll tell you why that's the case in a minute and its island nations. As I've mentioned already, Africa is no longer split between three different combatant commanders: European, Central and Pacific Command. It now receives the full and undivided attention of a single commander and headquarters staff. That is a great improvement with significant benefits for our partner nations in Africa, as they have told me.

While a continent of immense promise, Africa's size alone constitutes a unique challenge. I don't have to tell you how large the continent is. As students and as professors and as those who have done work on the continent, you are well aware of its immense, immense dimensions. Just for comparative purposes, you could take three continental United States, place them inside the continent of Africa, and still have a lot of territory left over huge, huge, huge. You look at a globe and a map of the world and you see in no way does it depict the immense size of that continent.

But what the continent of such immense promise those who have limited experience in Africa tend to view it as a homogenous country, rather than the massive and diverse continent that it really is. U.S. Africa Command's area of responsibility constitutes just geographic regions covering over 11.7 million square miles again, about three and one half times the size of the continental United States. It accounts for 20 percent of the land on earth.

I spoke about earlier Africa's 53 sovereign nations. One more time 53 sovereign nations with approximately 933 million people constituting 4.2 percent of the world's population and that figure is growing daily. There are more than 800 ethnicities speaking more than 1,000 languages, all professing to be members of our global society covering religions that span the gamut.

Ethnic ties are very strong, and often, ethnic politics will overtake national politics. Collectively, the people of the African continent encounter the full range of government and human conditions. Africa is considered as the world's most impoverished region. It contains 25 of the poorest nations in the world. The difficulties, trends and human issues which define the current involvement of the U.S. Africa Command area of responsibility include terrorism, piracy on the seas, frozen conflicts, unresolved territorial disputes, illegal trafficking of various commodities of human beings, the drugs, the weapons, terrorism and natural disasters.

In Africa, we face a complex environment with enormous challenge and potential. While rich in both human potential and mineral resources, Africa has struggled historically with relatively unstable governments, internal political strife, and economic problems. Many states remain fragile today due to a variety of factors including corruption, endemic health problems and historical ethnic animosities, as well as the poverty.

Yet, in spite of this, Africa is positioning itself to do more to provide for its own security by passing it through newfound opportunities and potential. And let me make it abundantly clear: There is tremendous opportunity. Right now, it exists for helping to prevent future conflicts and for providing prosperity on the African continent.

With increasing democratization and you may say, well, how can that be when we read about the various issues? That's only a snapshot of what goes on. To be sure there are examples where democratization, good government, institutions being formed have stood up, and a will and an intent to be better are occurring in various regions on the continent professional forces being born that operate under civilian control and abide by the rule of law as we look at recently with what went on in Kenya following the election and quite candidly, what their military did not do because of a recognition of the proper role of a military in a democratic society.

Security is a holistic function that includes the contributions of civilians as elements: police, border patrol, customs, judiciary, and the like. Because of this, the U.S. military contribution in improving security is but one component of the whole U.S. government effort, converging regional security and growing economic opportunities throughout Africa have created a growing political will among the Africa nations to confront security issues head on.

The Africans uniformly express a strong desire to have the capacity to deal with their own security issues. Nelson Mandela said it best many years ago. "We strive for an Africa where Africans provide for their own security, but with the help of our friends." These efforts forge greater peacekeeping abilities and the ability to export security across the continent are the things that my command is designed to address.

The time is now for building capacity for our African partners to help them prevent conflict, improve security, not just from a military standpoint, but holistically, build forces for security, customs, legal systems and ultimately, to defeat transnational threats and address crises of national disasters that undermine African growth.

Our mission statement, as approved by the Secretary of Defense, states United States Africa command, in concert with other U.S. government agencies and international partners, conducts sustained security engagement through military-to-military programs, military sponsored activities, and other military operations as directed in order to promote a stable and secure African environment in support of U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives. We do not act as those actors.

There are several key points I'd like to make about this mission statement. In concert with other U.S. government agencies and international partners, last year, my number one principle for U.S. Africa Command's (unintelligible) of the year was to build a team. Now that principle included my goal for building strong bonds of friendship and a common vision for the future, and my belief that teamwork was the key to facing the continent to bear challenges together. This is as true now as it was then. Everything we do at the unified command is in support of the entire U.S. government effort and we view that as so central to our mission that we wanted to state it upfront in our business rules.

Conduct sustained security engagement at U.S. Africa Command, we have committed ourselves to the delivery and sustainment of effective security cooperation programs that adds value to the stability and security of Africa. Quite candidly, prior to the creation of this command, our involvement was episodic and was not consistent. And as a result of that, the results that we hoped to attain were not always realized. The key for these programs is indeed, their sustainment and our partners and after knowing that we will be there for the long haul.

The creation of this command signals that intent on the part of the United States government. We understand the importance of being a reliable partner, one whose long-term goals and programs are committed to, and are sustained to ensure lasting value being added for our African partners. We recognize that there have been instances when follow-through on a program was lacking, which caused the gains made to be short lived. We look to be consistent, and as I said, not episodic.

This will be aided by U.S. Africa Command and the sole focus of the program and activities on the continent of Africa and its island nations, rather than being the second priority of multiple unified commands.

To make it clear, our mission is essentially military-to-military activity, but we can play a supportive role in humanitarian relief, disaster assistance and in other areas as may be requested and coordinated by our lead civilian agencies. We made a point of stating outright that our activities would be, indeed, supportive of U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives, not separate from it or even in addition to it, but clearly in support of established policy and other military operations as directed. This is also important.

As you know, we are a military command and therefore, we can be directed to take actions under the president's orders. We act with the same authorities as other unified commands, but we do not act unless we are told to do so. Well, just how do we go about providing the capabilities necessary to help our African partners? What is our strategy?

Our strategy entails a persistent and sustained level of effort focused on security assistance programs that prevent conflict and enhance conditions that contribute to an enhanced level of dialogue and development with our African partners. This strategy enables them to marginalize the enemies of peace, minimize the potential for conflict, foster the growth of strong, just governments and legitimate institutions and support the development of civil society.

We look to the nations' militaries on the continent of Africa to provide the same example as our military provided for our nations, in leading the way against such things as integration of our nations, fair practice. I stand here as a four-star general today because our nation recognizes the merit of individuals as who they are, as opposed to other critical traits.

Our pursuit of this strategy is through four major categories of activities. Building partner security capacity is the hallmark of our strategy. It is the primary role that we perform on a day-to-day basis. We perform hundreds of these types of activities repeatedly, such as military-to-military contact, training events, exercises both bilateral, as well as multilateral, military education, officer and noncommissioned officer professional development and other events. Our goal is to add value to these activities, to make them more effective in building the capacity that the actors themselves desire of their professional military.

One of the most important reasons for establishing U.S. Africa Command is that we can better harmonize Department of Defense activities in Africa, and of course, in Africa, this is captured in promoting our strategic relationships. We do not plan to only build partner security capacity. We will stand behind our partners and be steadfast proponents in matters that are in our mutual best interest. We take a proactive and forward-looking stance to ensure that the partnership is both last well into the future and are relevant with any of the goals set by the nations of Africa that are in keeping with our foreign policy objectives.

We will continue to support our U.S. government partners notably in civil military activities. These activities not only provide outstanding training and experience of some of our military communities, such as doctors, engineers and veterinarians; they support African humanitarian capacity building as well and bring good will to the African people. Ultimately, they do support U.S. government efforts to foster development and that complements security.

And then, of course, we will provide the capability to respond to crises when directed by the President of the United States. Our aim is to work to prevent conflict, but we will be ready to take action when told to do so. Our posture and ability to respond to crises when necessary assures our friends and dissuades our adversaries.

Now, central to all these activities stands communication. Specific levels of activities, they ebb and flow, but our communication activity must persist. U.S. Africa Command is a listening and learning organization. Through our relationships, we will work to understand how our partners see their environment from their perspective, and not just ours. Thus, we'll be better postured to understand the interests, as well as the complexities, of the diverse countries and cultures across the continent and therefore be better able to add value to existing programs or improve the design of new ones.

Now, if you'll permit me, our strategy is best described by an example, and there is no finer example than the Africa Partnership Station. The Africa Partnership Station, or APS, is a program. It is a capacity that we are employing that provides an acting platform for the purposes of engaging with our African naval partners.

Our partners in the Gulf of Guinea were greatly concerned about piracy, illegal trafficking, illegal fishing and other issues in their territorial waters. Both of the affected nations needed our assistance in addressing these security concerns. This led to a ministerial event in Benin in the city of Cotonou where the chiefs of these nations came together to develop a plan to improve their regional maritime security.

This conference was funded in part by the United States, but as a result of what went on there, there was a request from these ministers to the United States military for assistance. Consequently, a U.S. naval program adopted on a similar adopted from a similar axis training program developed for the U.S. Southern Command was put into effect, deployed, and from Senegal to Angola conducted operations and training events to help those nations improve their maritime safety and security. It was so well received, they've asked to come back. The next iteration will occur at the very beginning of this calendar year, 2009.

The Africa Partnership Station phase not only conducted training, education and exercises in support of our partner request; it also supported humanitarian assistance efforts delivering humanitarian relief following the recent uprising in Chad or the recent activities in Chad last January. As I've said, African Partnership Station is now an ongoing series of exercises that we look to continue because the Africans have asked us to. They have asked us to.

We're very excited about the plan that we are currently doing for the next iteration and we see this as not only a tool for interacting with our African partners, but also working with our European partners like Portugal, France, Spain, the United Kingdom and Germany because they too see common interests in these endeavors.

As the (unintelligible) success, we're looking for ways to see if other opportunities for building partner security capacity exists, such as in the realm of airspace management as well. As you know, a significant portion of the African airspace are uncovered. This should go beyond the military domain air traffic management, border security, airspace, all areas where there exists potential for solutions depending on how the Africans define the problem from their perspective and will all ultimately contribute to greater development on the continent.

You're familiar with some of our other efforts to build partner security capacity. The African contingency, operation and training assistance, a Department of State-led program that provides training to African militaries who are destined to participate in either the United Nations or African Union peacekeeping operations. These programs are supported by the Department of Defense. We look to enhance our activities in this area. Having trained roughly 20 battalions a year since 2004, the African Contingency Operation Training and Assistance Program, or ACOTA, have trained approximately 45,000 African soldiers, and most importantly, the addition of 3200 African trainers.

This training includes rule of law; this training includes the role of military in a modern democratic society again, efforts to help professionalize and cause those militaries to be factored in the advancement and progression of a society as opposed to not. Our goal is these militaries is to be seen as protectors of their people and not oppressors, loyal to their nation and its people and not to regimes.

We continue to look for ways to impart this professionalism on our African friends and partners. We do it in large programs that I mentioned and also smaller activities that we are involved in, laying a foundation for them to improve their capacity to provide for their own security, our focus. These examples that I have mentioned are but a few of our efforts as a unified command. We not only recognize the challenges of our African partners, but more importantly, take advantage of the opportunities that exist to support their efforts in achieving security, stability and development. We are making a difference. It is the appropriate thing to do.

The United States Africa Command represents the United States government's long-term commitment in strengthening our security ties across the continent as well as a new approach for conducting military-to-military activities within the Department of Defense itself. This command is designed to further a whole of government approach to carrying out the activities that we would do in support of our national security and foreign policy objectives.

And to that end, we are continuing to integrate members of the interagency, as well as other civilian personnel, to our command and staff structure. U.S. Africa Command is a listening, growing and developing entity dedicated to partnering with African governments, African security organizations, the international community, to help the people of Africa achieve the goals they have set for themselves.

All of our efforts focus on adding value to our African engagement efforts and that we do not disrupt or confuse current and ongoing U.S. government or international efforts. This command exists to support the United States government objectives in Africa as articulated and led by the Department of State.

It's my honor to serve as the commander alongside our uniformed men and women, as well our interagency partners and civilians who have made U.S. Africa Command a reality in such a short time one year from stand-up to unified command status. I also understand that in this audience there are some people who know the African security challenges and opportunity set, so I hope they'll be able to share perspectives with you on how you think we can best help, as we try to provide those things with resources available. As we grow and develop as a command, I will do my best to make this work for our nation, for the United States of America, our African partners and contributing to global stability. And I look forward to your role in joining me in that effort. Thanks very much.

(Applause.)

MR. STITH: General Ward has agreed to field questions, and we want to engage all four sides of this question. We'll take those questions first from Boston University students: Roxana Faramon (ph), who is an international relations undergraduate in her second year.

Q: Thank you. General Ward, in regard to AFRICOM's initial plans to find a host country in Africa, leaders such as Her Excellency, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the president of the Republic of Liberia, and Brownie Samukai, Jr., defense minister of Liberia, have expressed interest in hosting AFRICOM in Liberia.

My question is within Liberia's fragile peace and with (unintelligible) is there a possibility that U.S. presence in Liberia under the auspice of U.S. AFRICOM will jeopardize Liberian national security by making it a target for those interested in attacking the United States? How would AFRICOM deter and prevent such a perceived threat if they were to maintain a presence in Liberia, or any country for that matter, in which AFRICOM might be headquartered? In addition, the facilities that were available in the transition from the U.S. European Command obviously provided an advantage in the establishment of AFRICOM. What are the disadvantages of having the headquarters located outside of the continent?

GEN. WARD: That was a loaded question there. Thank you very much for that. But first, we are located in Stuttgart, and for the reason that you indicated, that did present itself with a very convenient, as well as welcome, way of beginning this command we have not asked any nation, other than Germany, to host the headquarters because as we begin this endeavor, the most important thing to do is to cause the programs that we are, in fact, involved in to be seen by the African nations as value added for their security posture.

Decisions to be made with respect to our presence on the continent are decisions that quite candidly, could be used by some as reasons for doing things, but I don't think that those would be any (unintelligible) reasons for either doing something on the continent in the way of a headquarter location or not. For the time being, our location in Germany supports standing of the command, moving ahead causing our program to be seen as worthwhile.

If sometime down the road, there is a discussion about some portion of the headquarters being on the continent, that will be taken in light of the factors that you mentioned, but more importantly, what nations, potential nations, impact in the region and other considerations, construction requirements, infrastructure requirements, transportation requirements that will make that a reality, none of which has been entered to at the current time. So for now, we are where we are and I see us being there for the foreseeable future. If that changes down the road because we've been again asked to come, and those factors will be taken into account before any decision will be made. Thank you.

Amb STITH: Let us move now to Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. We have Dr. Malvinia King (ph) standing by and she will introduce a couple of questions from that venue. Dr. King.

Q: Thank you, Ambassador Stith and thank you very much, General Ward. I'm going to introduce two students who are going to ask these questions for Morehouse, Reginald Cleaver (sp), economics major, senior, and Eliji (ph) Jane, economics major, senior.

Q: The importance of peace and stability and fostering democratic growth and development cannot be understated. How will AFRICOM play a role in peacekeeping efforts across the continent and in particular, the ongoing genocidal violence in Darfur, Sudan, and the unrest in Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo?

GEN. WARD: Well, thanks for that question. It's another great one. It's very easy to see why you are where you are. First and foremost, let me reassure everyone that the United States Africa Command does not make foreign policy. We carry out the foreign policy objectives and the national security objectives that are made by our policy-makers. Where there are military aspects of those foreign policy decisions and where those decisions pertain to the continent of Africa, it is now the United States Africa Command responsible for implementing those military aspects.

In the case of the troubled regions that you've indicated, we have been contributing actual players and preparing helping to prepare the nations of Africa who have contributed peacekeeping forces to those endeavors, from logistical aspects to facilitating their transportation, as well as other activities of training that help them be better prepared for going in and conducting their peacekeeping mission.

At the current time, as you are aware, there are no active roles for U.S. military ground forces on the continent and I don't foresee that. Again, we are supporters of the Africans' desire to provide for their own security. As they prepare their forces for those visions, we contribute in ways that they come to us and say, can you help us be better prepared to carry out these (unintelligible) missions as we move ahead?

Again, we follow our foreign policy lead insofar as our activities in those areas.

Q: With the liberation struggle and Cold War still a recent memory for many Africans, there has been concern across the continent about AFRICOM's role in defense, diplomacy, and development. What can you say to alleviate the concerns of those who see AFRICOM as a guise for U.S. imperialist policy?

GEN. WARD: Yes, that's great. First and foremost is what you don't see. One of the things that we were certainly that was presented as supporting this notion of militarizing, colonizing, was the notion that regional command was our guise to establish large bases, establishing bases where you would have garrisons of soldiers or airmen or naval presence. That's just not happening.

And so the first and most visible rationale that says those are not active because it's not happening and it won't happen. It's not the desire. It's certainly not the design, nor is it the construct of what we are going to be doing. And so we won't be putting large numbers of troops on the continent in the form of permanent garrisons or stationing large numbers. It's just not going to happen, and so that issue of colonization, militarization, just won't be the case because you won't see it happen and it won't be going on.

AMB. STITH: Thank you, General Ward. Let us now ask the folks at Elizabeth City State University in Elizabeth City Park, Carolina, to queue up. Elizabeth City, you're on.

Q: Thank you, Ambassador Stith, and thank you, General Ward, for your message today and your information. We have two students who are interested in asking two questions: Tameka (ph) Howard, a political science major and Robert Caruso (sp), a history major.

Q: Given that the United States presidential election as right around the corner and will have far-reaching impact, not only in Africa but globally, I would like to ask you about the challenges and opportunity in Africa for the next president. How do you see the outcome of the 2008 elections affecting AFRICOM's legitimacy and acceptance among Africans?

In addition, what aspects of the of President Bush fall in evolving what the Africans (unintelligible) the next commissioner in chief commander in chief will carry on in regards to his stand on the U.S.-Africa relations? Are there any changes that you desire?

GEN. WARD: Well, again, thanks for that. (Laughter.) I started out by telling you I'm just a simple soldier and I just do what the President and the Secretary of Defense tells me to do. But I think because of the value that I have been experiencing that other see in this command, I think the outcome of the upcoming election would have very little impact on the fact that this command is seen as an important innovation in how we conduct our military-to-military relations on the African continent. So I think we would continue to receive support from whatever administration comes into power (unintelligible) as our elections are (unintelligible).

The role that the United States of America plays on the continent is clearly a very important one; and it's not just seen in our military-to-military activities, but it's also seen in our other developmental activities, things that have been done in the economic development and growth, things that have been done through the Millennium Challenge Corporation, things that have been done through the programs to address a the scourge of disease and famine. I think those programs, be they for HIV/AIDS and malaria or economic opportunities, the Angola the African and Growth Opportunity Act that is such a very important part of development being done under the auspices of our government.

I believe those activities will continue. They are making a difference and I would see the work that we do within our command as being as supportive of and complementing those activities as they can be. Again, we have been stood up and formed to be more recognizing of those other activities, that our work contributes to them, as opposed to not. And I would look for that to be the case in the future as well.

Q: General Ward, though we should all remain optimistic that peace and stability will be maintained with the aid of AFRICOM's involvement, we cannot overlook the possibility of AFRICOM's role in certain countries to shift from prevention to response due to conflict. In the event that social unrest and instability becomes prevalent in an African country under the auspices of AFRICOM, what are the bare minimum conditions established by policymakers that would necessitate AFRICOM to respond to crisis and deploy U.S. troops to an area of conflict?

GEN. WARD: That's great again, you all are pretty tough here. I think first and foremost, you should know that our role in such matters will be the same as for other geographic unified commands. We would respond when the President directs a national response to a crisis, and if that response would involve the use of military assets, we would be involved.

Now, I think the thing that is hard to say what response will be because each situation in the continent is different. There's a very complex, diverse set of characteristics that would (inaudible) to predispose what a response would be, would really be not recognizing the fact that there is a complex scenario, given national partners, the involvement of others, so we would look to develop our participation in keeping with those developing situations as (unintelligible) on the ground.

Again, predetermining that is difficult. It's a continent of sovereign nations and what goes on inside their borders day out and day in, so those would have to be determined based on a decision to be made, a policy decision to be made. Where that policy decision has a military aspect, this command, given the appropriate resources, would execute would conduct those missions as in keeping with that foreign policy objective. Again, predisposing that is difficult to do because as Yogi Berra said, "One thing about the future, you just can't predict it." And so we'll be prepared to respond in ways that our current unified commands do and Africa Command is likewise posited to do so.

AMB. STITH: All right. We're ready now to hear from the great institution of Morgan State. We've got a couple of questions from Morgan State. Let's hear from you.

Q: Hi.

AMB. STITH: Morgan, you're on.

Q: Oh, hi. My name is Dan Tucker at Morgan State University. One of the questions are, prior to AFRICOM, three regional command structures shared areas of responsibility in AFRICOM in particular, Central Command, European Command and Pacific Command. The unified command of AFRICOM will certainly allow the U.S. to pursue and maintain partnerships with international and interagency partners in a more cohesive fashion.

How, in particular, will AFRICOM encourage collaboration between the U.S. and other international superpowers such as China, which have a presence in Africa? Could you provide specific examples of AFRICOM's efforts or plans to complement and not conflict with other countries such as China's interests? What barriers are there to collaboration and multilateral efforts on peacekeeping and security issues?

GEN. WARD: Wow. It just keeps going and going and going here. (Laughter.) It might be a good idea, Professor, to maybe turn around some of these questions and assign them out as projects another great question.

First, as you already noted many of our European partners are actively engaged on the continent of Africa. We have thought all along that our intent is to add value to the ongoing work, not be in conflict with it, not contradict it, but to complement it. As we move down this noble trail, I think, we will continue to personally engage with the relevant partners who have interests as well.

I, myself, have been involved in speaking with our European partners and friends. Our administration officials have engaged with other members of the international community to determine where there are common lines of interest, common policy objectives, where we can work in harmony to help further achieve those common objectives.

And so one of the important criteria is the point I made with effective communication, how we communicate with one another. It's done a lot today on the continent. Our Ambassadors who are closer to the continent have interactions with their colleagues, their counterparts and various other missions that are stationed there. And because we don't do anything in a country without the (unintelligible) approval of the ambassador, we are further assured that our activities and work complements and supports the greater activities that are ongoing.

Right now, specifically, you mentioned China. Again, we are not in competition with China. Where there are common interests and common lines that we can pursue for reaching common objectives, we're clearly open to doing that, and as policy decisions are made and determinations are rendered that permit those welcome engagements then we certainly look forward to doing that as well we do with our European friends and partners today.

AMB. STITH: Morgan, do you have a second question?

Q: Yes, coming from Monique Ultinet (ph), Morgan State University. AFRICOM's stated purpose is to promote peace, security, and to support the common goals of development, health, education, democracy and economic growth in Africa. What methods will be used to measure and monitor the progress and implementation of these goals?

GEN. WARD: Yes, that's another great question. I wish I had everyone knows about the effect-based operation. You do something and then you can measure the effects of it, and you can see if it is working or not working. Well, progress indeed, in many instances, is long term, and in the case of what we want to do on the continent of Africa, it's measured in many occasions in terms of years, and maybe even decades, as opposed to day, weeks, or months. And so I would say that a lot would say that a lot of what we are doing today may not be fully recognized as having worked for some time from now. But in order to do our best and assure that we are on the correct path, we do look at a process, a way of doing business, that keeps us aligned as best we can.

We developed a strategy and I could really give you some chapter-verse a strategy that aligns our national objectives, our national security objectives, our foreign policy objectives, so that the work that we do within the command will be linked to achieving those national security and foreign policy objectives. And we do it in a collaborative environment, so that we do it working, consulting with, talking with our partners who also engage in doing their work on the continent. And our intent is to move ahead in a way that assures us, as best as we can be assured, that our activities are, in fact, aligned with the activities of the rest of our government that are supporting the activities of the African partners and friends, their regional organizations.

For example, we work with the African Union the African Union, established by the nations of Africa as their overarching organization to address matters of economic development and security. In particular, they established their five regional economic communities, each with the design of having a standby force that could address issues of security within those regions.

Our work with those regional standby brigades is work is aligned with the work and priorities of the African Union that are reflective of the Presidential determinations that have been made with respect to how we deal with those regional organizations and then keeping with the standup of these various activities in professional ways. Where our national relations are, in fact, reflected in that policy, we will work with the nations of Africa and their regional organization.

A recent example, Mauritania you are aware of the recent of the military coup in Mauritania. Prior to that coup, we were engaging in military to military activities with the government of Mauritania, the armed forces of Mauritania. A military coup is not our preferred way of governmental transition and when that happened, our foreign policy said that we had to stop the activities there. We just don't support that. So again, it was a follow-on from our foreign policy objectives that then guided our military activities that we were conducting not decisions that are made by Kip Ward or anyone else, but decisions that are taken by our policymakers, our military (unintelligible) and then carried out and implemented by the command.

So in this case, promoting peace, security, we were clearly (unintelligible) to do it where it supports our national strategy and those ideas, those ways of doing business that we want to do. We would then work in close coordination, consultation with the African partners, doing those things that not we think of, but things they have asked us to do as they work to build their own security and improve their own professionalism of their security force (unintelligible). Thanks. It was a very, very fine question.

AMB. STITH: We have another question from BU, offsite here, Captain William (Clarkson ?).

Q: (Inaudible) you spoke of the Joint Force Staff College where I used to work and you were talking about standing up AFRICOM. My question goes to the manning levels that you were at back in January (unintelligible) at now. What would you tell any of the young people that are about to graduate from these fine institutions about how to join your team in your front line?

GEN. WARD: Thanks for that. That was a planned question and it was a great one, though. (Laughter.) I started off by acknowledging these fine young folks who were here about to make a decision to enter the military or not. I certainly do not propose that that is the only way that our youngsters can serve, or anyone can serve this nation. Clearly, there are many, many avenues available and I just wanted to so proud of our young folks who make a decision to serve in our public sector that indeed, it does make a difference. And there are many avenues clearly, this one, there's a (unintelligible) military is one that I think is also very, very important.

We, as a nation, can serve as an example for the world. There's no better representative of that than our nation's young men and women who are out building relationships, working side by side with our friends around the world. I can't tell you the number of times that I have gone, and the Ambassador can chronicle my military service from Europe to Asia to Africa, to have someone come to me and say or recall some experience for a young man or a young woman in uniform that lent a hand, and how that has made a difference and not just this generation, going back to what this nation did following our World Wars One and Two, and how those activities still resonate.

And what's going on today, in our global conflict, where are our nation's young people because of how other human beings around the world get to know us through them, how that matters. That is what this command is reinforcing. And so when it comes to how you make a contribution, how you call that to matter, it's, one, what do you know about your fellow human beings around the world, knowing that the backyard is not just across the alley anymore.

It is indeed a global community, foreign languages, understanding cultures, traditions, understanding societies or what causes you what they are and who they are, not from your eyes, but from the eyes of those with whom you want to work. Be open to understanding, listening to them, and then studying them, so that when you are involved in anything and you make a decision, you make that decision from that perspective, as opposed to only yours.

I used an example and (unintelligible) I apologize (unintelligible) that I'm a hypocrite, but without the young guy, 37 years that we were digging foxholes, never (unintelligible) foxhole with, even though he was never (unintelligible) just Beetle Bailey digging a foxhole. Sometimes you get down as part of that protection when there's danger out there, and the issue is you always want to make that foxhole better because it's maybe the only thing that's between life and death. Your foxhole changes as you move along, so now (unintelligible) many of us in foxholes. My foxhole today as commander of the United States AFRICOM command my foxhole, that's where I am.

But you work every day to make it better, but from the perspective of others and the way that you see this is you the only thing inside of your foxhole, the only vehicle, your point of view, but to see how your foxhole is viewed by others, you've got to get outside of it and look back at it from their perspective. Then you can see where the gaps are, where the space that you thought may have been covered is uncovered, and that's what we ought to be doing.

What you're doing now is helping you get there because we're expanding your horizons, you're understanding things from the perspective of others. You get that through your interactions, your studies, your professors', your preparation. Be willing to listen. Be willing to see something from someone else's point of view, has caused it to work for them, from their point of view and not from yours.

And that starts with understanding them, knowing what you need to do, your craft, and having the tools that will set you up with that. And key among those, and I think today's environment, is not foreign language because a foreign language (unintelligible) foreign language because of what it exposes you to about other culture and other societies important, important, important.

AMB. STITH: General Ward, on behalf of Boston University, Elizabeth City State University, Morehouse College and Morgan State, I want to say thanks very much for this delightful presentation and for the opportunity to engage with questions on AFRICOM. Thank you very much.

GEN. WARD: Thank you very much. Thank you. (Applause.) Thanks for this great opportunity and to the participating staff, faculty, and students here, as well at the (load ?) sites. People know that you're doing great work. It matters. It makes a difference, and God bless you for what you do. I'm proud serve on the team with all of you. Thank you very much. (Applause.)

AMB. STITH: Yes. Thank you, General Ward.