01-31-2013, 04:00 PM
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Confirmed User
Industry Role:
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 405
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43 page report to Congress conducted by the CRS Congressional Research Service in July 2011 giving the full details of AFRICOM called "Africa Command: U.S. Strategic Interests and the Role of the U.S. Military in Africa"
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL34003.pdf
Report written by the US Energy Information Administration:
http://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/de...kesraphael.pdf
Quote:
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Indeed it was the creation of a new Pentagon Combatant Command AFRICOM in 2007 to consolidate Washington's strategic push into oil-rich West Africa. For the first time, the US military posture towards the region is now coordinated within one command structure. Of course, the creation of AFRICOM, and the higher priority thereby accorded to the region in the minds of US planners, is not solely reducible to oil interests. Wider economic stability, poverty reduction, conflict resolution, counterterrorism and counternarcotics, and infrastructure building are all elements of Washington's objectives in the region. However, the fact remains that oil forms the primary interest, and significantly determines the nature and direction of US strategy towards West Africa. Pentagon officials are not shy in declaring this to be so. Summing up the rationale for the increasing American presence, the Commander-in-Chief of EUCOM, James Jones, made clear at the time that 'Africa's vast potential makes African stabiility a near-term global strategic imperative.' Strategy papers released by the Pentagon have stressed the 'increasing importance' of 'Africa's mineral and oil wealth', and the links between these resources and American national interests. Senior US planners have continued to emphasize the importance of African oil: Ambassador J. Anthony Holmes argued in January 2011 that all the US wants is to 'ensure that the system operates without disruption' which is a very 'important issue for us. It is absolutely essential to our security interests, globally, in addition to Africa...I can tell you without any hesitation or doubt that what you're describing is a global phenomenon based on supply and demand for energy resources in a global market.'
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