By by Jerry P. Lanier, U.S. Africa Command's Foreign Policy Advisor
U.S. AFRICOM Public Affairs  Print     Share  

ARLINGTON, Virginia, 

Feb 18, 2009 — Following are prepared remarks by Jerry P. Lanier, U.S. Africa Command's Foreign Policy Advisor, for the 4th annual Reconstruction and Stabilization conference in Arlington, Virginia, February 18, 2009.

The conference, which brought together nearly 100 attendees, focused on security, stability, and reconstruction operations that are now being worked into the ongoing planning and strategy of the U.S. government.

Lanier spoke on the role and programs of U.S. Africa Command, highlighting the Africa Partnership Station, Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa, and the command's support to the Department of State's Trans Sahara Counter Terrorism Partnership program (TSCTP), among others.

Emphasizing the importance of U.S. Africa Command's interagency approach, Lanier stated that the command relies on the experience of civilian agencies to carry out its missions.

"I give credit to my colleagues at DoD for recognizing that the military could not even think about going it alone in Africa, but rather actually needed and requested the experience and expertise that was resident elsewhere in the U.S. government, particularly in the State Department and USAID," he said. Thus the Command established the procedures and structures to hone its activities on the continent by ensuring its efforts were shaped by its interagency members."

Lanier also touched upon development activities on the Africa continent, explaining that while U.S. Africa Command is not responsible for development activities in Africa, it supports U.S. Department of State in development efforts by working to build a foundation of security and stability.

"Our view is that if security can be established, or even improved, then good governance, greater economic development, and responsive public institutions have a greater chance of developing," he explained.

In working towards its security goals, Lanier said, U.S. Africa Command provides comprehensive training to African military forces, helping them to build their capacity and become more responsive to the nation's security needs.

Lanier concluded his presentation by stating, "Although challenges lie ahead, through the harmonization of efforts by U.S. Government agencies, intergovernmental and multinational partners, we can achieve a common solution to achieving a more stable and secure environment in Africa."

The complete transcript of Lanier's prepared remarks is included below:

Thank you for the opportunity to speak with all of you today. This conference provides a great opportunity to connect with various groups and to listen to the diverse perspectives of representatives from a multitude of U.S. Government agencies, international and regional organizations, and the private sector. I look forward to talking with many of you throughout this week.

I am here to talk to you about U.S. Africa Command, our structure and approach, and how the Command supports and contributes to the efforts of our interagency to assist African nations in building a more stable and secure Africa.

As the Foreign Policy Advisor to U.S. Africa Command, I find myself with a foot in both camps--working for the U.S. Department of Defense while still serving as a Senior Foreign Service officer in the U.S. Department of State. To begin, we'll discuss where U.S. Africa Command is today, nearly 18 months after its inception and nearly six months after it achieved Unified Command Status, which officially made it one of six regional commands, each of which is responsible for guiding Department of Defense programs, activities, missions, and exercises within their geographic area of responsibility.

Specifically, U.S. Africa Command is responsible for coordinating and executing DoD programs and activities both on the continent of Africa and for its island nations. The only exception is Egypt, which remains in the responsibility area of U.S. Central Command.

Had I given this speech a year ago, my remarks would have focused nearly entirely on the "why" for U.S. Africa Command. Today, I will provide you with the "what"--the work we are doing and have done in the past year, in cooperation with African nations, to promote peace and stability in Africa, including a variety of programs, exercises, activities.

One of the responsibilities of my position is to accompany the commander, General Kip Ward, during his trips to the continent. Over last 15 months, I've travelled, usually with him, to each of the African regions, and the majority of African nations, including a visit to the African Union headquarters in Ethiopia. In that time, I've heard the questions and concerns emanating from African leaders, both civilian and military. In the past year, these questions have evolved from initial concerns about the purpose of U.S. Africa Command to questions about how we can work together more effectively. I have noticed a marked change in opinion on U.S. Africa Command, which I believe is the result of General Ward's and the Africa Command staff members' efforts to listen to our African partners, learn what they most desire from the U.S. government in the areas of security cooperation, and then assist where appropriate. Once the African nations and its leaders saw the value of the Command's activities, perceptions began to change. This is where we are today. U.S. Africa Command is now working to respond to the needs of African nations, whose leaders are asking, "what can you do to help us?"

Within this context, let's continue to examine the status of U.S. Africa Command. One of its objectives of is to create quality DoD programs on the continent in support of U.S. Foreign policy and other U.S. government efforts in Africa.

It is important to note that the Command works in support of U.S. Foreign policy on the continent; it does not direct it. The Office of African Affairs, a subset of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, is responsible for DoD policy in Africa. U.S. Africa Command executes DoD programs, activities, exercises, and missions on the continent of Africa in accordance with DoD policy and in support of U.S. Foreign policy objectives.

To further this point, I will describe for you how and where U.S. Africa Command will support U.S. policy objectives in Africa.

In a speech earlier this month, the U.S. Department of State's acting assistant Secretary for Africa, Phil Carter, stated that the U.S. government has four policy objectives in Africa for the 21st Century:

1. providing security assistance programs that are critical to securing the objective of a peaceful African continent. The U.S. Government will work with our African partners to build capacity at three levels: (1) at the level of the African Union, (2) at the sub-regional level, and (3) at the level of individual states.

2. promoting democratic systems and practices--The U.S. Government is engaged in supporting the rise of freedom and democracy on the continent. It is not enough to just end wars, but we must move beyond post-conflict transformation to consolidate democracies.

3. promoting sustainable and broad-based, market-led economic growth.

4. promoting health and social development.

As we examine these four objectives through the prism of U.S. Africa Command, you see there is one objective where the Command can provide substantial support to U.S. policy: "providing security assistance programs." I say "support" because while the Command is clearly an expert in security assistance, it does not decide which countries should receive security assistance; this is responsibility of the U.S. State Department. Moreover, the Command does not decide what security assistance programs should be utilized within an approved country. This is responsibility of the U.S. Ambassador to that country. U.S. Africa Command does not work independently of U.S. Embassies on the continent. Every program the Command executes in any country on the continent is fully vetted through our Embassy Country Team, and designed to support Chief of Mission priorities and add value for our African partners. So, even in its area of expertise--security assistance--U.S. Africa Command does not dictate foreign policy. Rather, it serves as an implementing agent for elements of U.S. policy in Africa.

For the remaining three U.S. policy objectives: promoting democracy, economic growth, and health and social development, U.S. Africa Command has neither the personnel, the expertise nor the intent to "lead" in these roles. The primary leads for these objectives rest in other departments and agencies within the U.S. government. The Command can provide support when and where requested. Objective four is perfect example of where the command can provide a supporting role. The Department of State executes the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). This multi-billion dollar program provides for prevention, treatment, and care to combat HIV/AIDS in Africa and around the world. U.S. Africa command executes a small portion of this program for the Department of Defense entitled DoD HIV/AIDS Prevention Program. This program's mission is to reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS among uniformed personnel in selected African Nations. It does this by assisting in the developing and implementing military-specific HIV prevention programs in concert with the country team and the DoD program lead. Out of a 4.5 Billion dollar-plus program in Africa, U.S. Africa Command, on behalf of the Department of Defense, executes a $78M program to improve the readiness of African militaries by improving their ability to prevent HIV/AIDS. DoD works in support of USG programs in Africa when and where it is appropriate.

Given the U.S. policy objectives, U.S. Africa Command's support to these objectives is best expressed through its mission statement.

United States Africa Command mission statement reads:


...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 to promote a stable and secure African environment in support of U.S. foreign policy.

Take note of two phrases. First: "in concert with other U.S. Government agencies." The second phrase: "sustained security engagement". I'll utilize these to phrases to provide you a snapshot of command today.

First, how does the Command work "in concert with other U.S. Government agencies?" This is important because, to quote the newly confirmed U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, Africa faces--challenges that no single nation can defeat alone--they require common action based on a common purpose and a vision of shared security."

Ambassador Rice's remarks also apply to U.S. government activities in Africa. U.S. AFRICA COMMAND alone does not and cannot direct the entire array of United States government activities in Africa. This is the role of the national security council and staff as well as the Washington D.C. interagency process. As I said previously stated, we at U.S. Africa Command, work to implement elements of U.S. policy in Africa. In order to better build our programs and activities, we embarked upon an evolutionary change in Combatant Command staffing--U.S. Africa Command integrated members of the U.S. agencies and departments who execute programs on the Continent of Africa into the Command to an extent unmatched by any other unified command.

Inside the beltway of Washington this was called the "militarization of U.S. policy in Africa." This misunderstanding originated, I think, from the expectation that U.S. Africa Command's decision to integrate members of the interagency into the Command would obviate the need for the interagency process in Washington. This is entirely untrue as the NSC, DoD, and State along with the other interagency partners continue, today, to develop U.S. policy for Africa through the interagency process.

What I must note is that, while the integration of interagency members into the Command does not militarize foreign policy, it sometimes results in the "foreign policy-ization, development-ization, and ultimately the interagency-ization" of U.S. military efforts in Africa.

Just think about it--in any peacetime operations, or during routine implementation of peacetime programs, the military MUST work with civilian agencies. The Command has neither the understanding, nor the experience, nor most importantly, the authorities, to work on its own in most peacetime situations in Africa. And I give credit to my colleagues at DoD for recognizing that the military could not even think about going it alone in Africa, but rather actually needed and requested the experience and expertise that was resident elsewhere in the U.S. government, particularly in the State Department and USAID. Thus the Command established the procedures and structures to hone its activities on the continent by ensuring its efforts were shaped by its interagency members.

To do this, we eschewed the traditional unified command structure and built a new one based on common functions. This is because the traditional structure was more conducive to combat operations; not the Command's primary focus: security assistance. This new structure is suited for executing security assistance programs and supporting U.S. government efforts in Africa.

Several of the interagency experts serve in the Command's senior leadership positions, a first for unified commands:

The Department of State provides one of the two Deputies--the Deputy to the Commander for Civil-Military Activities. State also provides the Foreign Policy Advisor, and Director of Outreach.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provides the Senior Development Advisor for the Command, the Director of Programs, and Director of our Humanitarian Assistance programs branch.

The Department of Commerce provides the Deputy Director for Resources responsible for personnel, budgets, and assessments.

In addition, there are senior advisors from other departments that are integrated throughout the staff to place their expertise in locations where they can make the greatest contribution to the Command. This stands in contrast to simply collecting them in a room together and hoping their expertise and insights permeates the Command's processes and products. These additional interagency members represent the Departments of Treasury, Homeland Security, Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, and Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Other agencies provide temporary personnel while they determine when and how they can provide permanent positions with U.S. AFRICOM.

These interagency members do not develop the policy of their home agency or department. In fact, they do not speak on behalf of their parent organization. This is done through the interagency process in Washington D.C. What they do is provide the command with the insights into their parent organizations activities in Africa and inject their own expertise and experience into the command's processes to enable the command to better develop and implement its programs, activities, and missions, and exercises. This results in a Combatant Command whose activities are more acutely focused and is better situated to support other U.S. government efforts in Africa.

The second phrase from the Command's mission statement that I asked you to note was "sustained security engagement." This is the "how" of what the Command does.

In this regard, Africa Command is very conscious of the needs for both state security and human security on the African continent. Security already exists to some degree in most areas of Africa, but not everywhere. Even if the states are secure, often the people residing in them are not. We seek to work with host governments to improve security of the people where it is possible and appropriate and to assist in its creating a measure of security where it is absent. Our view is that IF security can be established, or even improved, then good governance, greater economic development, and responsive public institutions have a greater chance of developing.

As I've now used the word development, let me briefly address this in the context of U.S. Africa Command. The Command is working to better understand the need for reconstruction and stability in the political sense, the economic sense, and the psychological sense, in Africa. Not to lead it but to understand how its efforts support it. As we know, practically none of the existing governments in Africa have ever had good models of good governance to draw upon. Most of the countries started their independent eras with radically little in resources, both in capital and human resources. And instability and uncertainty have made it impossible for many of the people of Africa to be able to envision a predictable course of events, or to even be able to plan for the future with any confidence about what the future would look like, a necessary ingredient for development. Their insecurity and the insecurity of their state or community has a lot to do with that. We in U.S. Africa Command cannot solve these issues and are not responsible for U.S. Government programs to address most of these development issues in Africa. The Command is able to work in the area of security, which forms the foundation for successful work in these other sectors. In the area of development as well as governance and health objectives, we rely on colleagues from other agencies and other countries. But it is important to remember that security is the base requirement for progress in nearly all sectors.

From purely a security standpoint, U.S. Africa Command's main task is to provide comprehensive training to African military forces. Since many or most African militaries do not face a serious external threat, many of our efforts in African countries center around military reform, professionalization of the military, and capacity building, all of which are designed to make the recipient nation's military more responsive to its own government and to its people. Of course, this kind of training is also valuable if one must face an external foe.

One of our biggest challenges is dealing with failed and/or under-developed or under-governed states. In states where government cannot extend its reach throughout the entire nation we have seen that the ungoverned areas become safe-havens for crime, including terrorism, and trafficking in arms, drugs and human beings. U.S. Africa Command can and does assist the militaries in states that face such problems and have the genuine will to do something about them. In many cases, however, these are police problems and not military problems. Our civilian police agencies also need to be funded to train and equip those states that cannot deal with the problems themselves. And we at U.S. Africa Command will support them where appropriate.

The Command's primary tool for implementing its support to African militaries is through its military-to-military contact. This effort is executed through security cooperation offices attached to U.S. Embassies on the continent. Some of these offices are fully-staffed Offices of Security Cooperation while others are Defense Attaches. They coordinate bi-lateral military activities with their host nations and are active in helping these nations improve their security capabilities.

We refer to these offices as the face of U.S. Africa Command. There is no one else within U.S. Africa Command who has first-hand understanding of the African perspective and who can best judge the second- and third-order effects of our actions and programs. (We are pursuing plans to increase them from 12 to 23 by fiscal year 2012).

The most prominent example of our military-to-military training efforts is the Africa Partnership Station. This program originated from a request by the nations surrounding the Gulf of Guinea which sought U.S. assistance to develop a plan to improve their regional maritime security. Consequently, the U.S. Navy developed a program called Africa Partnership Station, or APS. The Navy collected specific requirements from each nation which wanted APS to visit (all communicated through the U.S. Embassy country teams to the command's headquarters), and then ensured that the resources needed at each location were on hand. Today APS provides a unique venue for the shared efforts being made by various agencies and non-governmental organizations from Africa, the U.S. and Europe. Because APS is typically based aboard a ship, it doesn't require a permanent base in Africa. The ship functions as a mobile university, moving from port to port to provide training and long-term collaboration between American, European and African nations. During each of these port visits, APS offers tailored training to build partnerships and achieve common goals through collaboration.

In addition to the military-to-military training, U.S. Africa Command has two on-going operations it inherited from both U.S. Central and U.S. European Command. One is Operation Enduring Freedom-Trans Sahara, or OEF-TS, and the second is Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, or CJTF-HOA.

Operation Enduring Freedom-Trans Sahara provides military support to the Department of State's Trans Sahara Counter Terrorism Partnership program or TSCTP. OEF-TS supports State's program by improving and in some cases forming security collaboration and communication among the militaries of all Trans Sahara Nations. Furthermore, OEF-TS strengthens counterterrorism and border security, reinforces bilateral military ties, and supports development and institution building. U.S. Africa Command, through OEF-TS, provides training, equipment, assistance, and advice to partner nation armed forces. This increases their capacity and capability to deny safe haven to terrorists and ultimately defeat extremist and terrorist activities in the region.

(Note: Examples of OEF-TS activities:

• Military information sharing


• Communications systems interoperability


• Joint, combined, and multinational exercises enhancing cooperation


• Countering extremist ideology


• Sustaining regional operations


• Building upon mutual military professionalism and accountability


• Airlift and logistical support


• Ground and aviation training and maintenance support)

While OEF-TS activities are on-going in the Trans-Sahara region, Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa also works in East Africa to counter extremism through the indirect approach. Through a strategy of Cooperative Conflict Prevention, CJTF-HOA builds security capacity, promotes regional cooperation, and protects coalition interests to prevail against extremism in the region. This Command is based in Djibouti and utilizes the skills of approximately 2,000 people from each military branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, civilian employees, and representatives of coalition and partner countries to build regional security capacity, forge relationships, and when appropriate support development.

The CJTF-HOA's most visible activities are those of a civil-military nature designed to support stability in the region. These include infrastructure projects and medical assistance efforts. These efforts may give rise to calls of military engaged in development, but these instances of infrastructure projects are fully coordinated with the host U.S. Embassies to ensure that what CJTF-HOA does works in concert with U.S. Embassy development efforts in the host nation. These projects fill the seams where USAID may be unable to provide assistance. A perfect example of this "seam effort" is on the Comoros Islands. Here, CJTF-HOA's infrastructure projects provide the most visible evidence of U.S. assistance. Without a USAID mission, CJTF-HOA fills the seam to deliver U.S. EMB approved projects. When possible, and especially in the case of the Comoros, the U.S. military works side by side with the host nation military to provide an example to the host nation troops but also to allow the citizens of those nations to see their military can provide assistance to improve their lives
This illustrates CJTF-HOA's less visible role--building security capacity. Consistent contact with partner nation militaries provides U.S. Africa Command the opportunity to instill values and professionalism in the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines to whom with they train. CJTF-HOA provides basic and fundamental training to the partner-nation soldiers.

Another example the Command's mentorship efforts, which lies outside of CJTF-HOA, is our support the U.S. Government Security Sector Reform efforts in Liberia. Here the Command details personnel to Liberia to serve as mentors to the Liberian Armed Forces. For those that do not know, this army was rebuilt, not reformed, following the conclusion of their civil war in 2003. The Liberian soldiers' constant interaction with U.S. military personnel provides the foundation for the long-term professionalization of the Liberian Army. This is not a one-time detail of personnel but a long-term engagement plannnnnÃ?an example of the Command's support to U.S. government objectives on the continent and its dedication to improving the consistency of DoD security cooperation efforts.

The final example of where the Command can be of benefit on the Continent is support to other organizations. In January of this year, U.S. Africa Command supported the United Nations/African Union Mission in Darfur when it provide airlift to move equipment for Rwandan forces deploying to Darfur. The U.S. government interagency process made the decision to provide this support to the United Nations. U.S. Africa Command implemented this offer of support.

The Command also executes U.S. Department of State security assistance programs in many of the countries on the African Continent. Through Foreign Military Sales and Financing, Expanded and International Military Education and Training, and with mentors for the African peacekeeper training program entitled the Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance Program, or ACOTA, U.S. Africa Command furthers U.S. policy efforts in Africa to develop the security capacity of our partner nations.

In these programs and our military-to-military training, U.S. Africa Command works along side the U.S. Embassy country team, to include its assigned military officers, to develop a security cooperation program that meets with the requests of the partner nation but is also congruent with U.S. foreign policy.

I have only highlighted some of the programs U.S. Africa Command conducts or supports as part of overall U.S. Government efforts. These are just a few of the ways we are enabling Africans to build the capacity to provide peace and security for their people.

Although challenges lie ahead, through the harmonization of efforts by U.S. Government agencies, intergovernmental and multinational partners, we can achieve a common solution to achieving a more stable and secure environment in Africa. Thank you.