“Britain declared Bechuanaland a protectorate in 1885 in a move largely driven by military strategic considerations rather than by the availability of economic resources. This can give the impression that in Botswana the process of economic underdevelopment, that is often associated with colonialism never took place in this British ‘protectorate’ The British colonial state policies subverted indigenous economic interests and stifled opportunities for indigenous private capital accumulation, while actively promoting the economic interests of a small white settler capitalist class.” Academic paper by Monageng Mogalakwe (University of Botswana).
In a four part series, we shall in the coming weeks exhaust the topic on making Botswana a new home for the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) which is currently housed in Stuttgart, Germany. The reason why it has remained in Germany all these years was for the fact that this command was birthed from the European Central Command (EUCOM).
Right after WW2, the United States began to subdivide the world as according to their military commands. Each command is militarily responsible for that geographical location. Each command takes care of all military interests of the United States and these interests are usually coupled with protecting economic and strategic interests as well.
In this series I will be widely dealing with all the commands and how the world looks like from a geo-political perspective of the Americans. These commands exist primarily to protect the interests of the United States of America and the Americans are usually non apologetic about. Each command is responsible for all military exercises, cooperation and operations in their sphere of influence.
It is here that we need to deal with history of these geo-political commands and their need for their existence. Prior to the creation of AFRICOM, the United States military operated around the world with the FIVE commands and these exist as combatant commands. That means, should there be need to launch an operation in any part of the world, it is the command responsible for that geographical sphere that provides troops and logistics to take care of each mission.
Before the creation of AFRICOM, Africa was largely taken care of the European Command (EUCOM) which I visited and studied in 1992. CENTCOM also had a share in East and the Horn of Africa. INDOPACOM had a tiny little share of the continent in that it serviced the Indian Ocean islands.
There is also the Central Command (CENTCOM) which I find to been the busiest in the last two decades and is stationed at Mac Dill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. I would like to refer to this command as the hotbed of the world as the countries covered here have been in perpetual wars in the last two to three decades. CENTCOM came on to the lime light during the Gulf War known as Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
It is still this command that has to deal with the current civil war in Syria and also looks after the entire turmoil prone Middle East. In fact more than half of the world’s conflicts occur here.
The Indo-Pacific (INDOPACOM) is headquartered in Camp HM Smith in Hawaii. This is by far the largest military command for the US and any other country in the world as it covers half of the world’s land mass. Equally so, this is a command that has the largest human population under it as it covers India and China which are the most populous countries one after another.
The Northern Command (NORTHCOM) is responsible for covering what is known as North America. This command is basically what we may call the US Defence Force as its primary mission is to secure the homeland. Their sector reaches the Arctic Circle and their training is equally matched to this terrain requirements.
Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) is based in Miami, Florida. This is an unmistakeably a Latin American command from the way their shield appears. It depicts the map of South America including the stretch of land that is Panama. In fact its origin dates back to 1903 when the first US troops arrived there to protect the strategic rail line linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. This was a precursor of the famous Panama Canal. This oceanic transit route stands at the apex of the US military priority.
EUCOM (European Command) is based in Stuttgart, Germany. This has been the most critical command for the United States of America particularly during the Cold War. The theatre of the Cold War was mainly in Europe and almost the entire region now falls under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and this civil/military organization was very key in helping the US to prevail over the Soviet Union in the Cold War.
And finally we had the formation of the Africa Command (AFRICOM) in 2006 and went on until 2008. The formation of this command has been a process rather than an event. The reason why it took so long to consolidate this combatant command into a fully-fledged operational entity was for the fact that the process included taking it through the approval of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
As the name surmises, this command is responsible for continental Africa except for Egypt which still remains under the care of CENTCOM. AFRICOM is actually a derivative of EUCOM and this is why they are still both based in Stuttgart, Germany. Before the creation of AFRICOM, Africa was mainly divided into two. It was sub-Saharan Africa and the countries within the Sahara. The creation of AFRICOM has changed this map to include all but Egypt.
For fifteen years now, this latest command has failed to secure its own home independent from the parent command in EUCOM. The continent has in the past been uncomfortable in hosting this command. The United States Department of Defence has done all the necessary efforts to secure a home for this command but to no avail.
The first commander of this command was four-star General Ward, an African American officer and by all standards, the Department of Defence wanted it to look as indigenous to the continent as possible. Right after the command was inaugurated, General Ward and his officers toured the whole of Africa seeking to consolidate an already existing relationship with governments and military forces. It seems all these positive gestures did not entice African governments.
