Daniel Volman
25 May 2006
guest column
After decades of Cold War, when Africa was simply viewed as a convenient pawn on the global chessboard, and a further decade of benign neglect in the 1990s, the African continent has now become a vital arena of strategic and geopolitical competition for not only the United States, but also for China, India, and other new emerging powers. The main reason for this is quite simple: Africa is the final frontier as far as the world's supplies of energy (both oil and natural gas) are concerned.
World oil production is only just meeting world demand and old fields are being drained faster that new production can be brought on line. Supplies will be tight for the foreseeable future, so any new source of supply is significant. Most importers are also trying to reduce their dependence on Middle Eastern oil. In the next 10-15 years, most of the new oil entering the world market is going to be coming from African fields because it is only in Africa—and to a lesser extent in the volatile Central Asia region—that substantial new fields have been found and brought into production.
The United States and the Militarization of African Oil Production
As in the Middle East and the Caspian Sea region before it, Africa is now a target for military intervention by the United States, France, China, and other powers competing to gain control over energy supplies. The most public expressions of this linkage have come from American officials. Since 1980, the United States has been officially committed (in the words of President Jimmy Carter which have become known as the "Carter Doctrine") to the use of "any means necessary, including military force," to ensure the free flow of Persian Gulf oil. President Clinton announced the establishment of military ties with the new republics of Central Asia as needed because "in a world of growing energy demand, our nation cannot afford to rely on any single region for our energy supplies." Now the "Carter Doctrine" has been extended to Africa. "African oil is of strategic national interest to us," US Assistant Secretary of State Walter Kansteiner declared during a visit to Nigeria in July 2002, and "it will increase and become more important to us as we go forward."
As in the Caspian, the establishment or expansion of military aid programs in Africa and the provision of U.S. arms, military equipment, and technical assistance has accompanied these statements. To a considerable extent, this aid is intended to enhance the internal security capabilities of friendly African states, so that they can better control (or suppress) the ethnic, religious, and factional divisions that roil many of these countries. Not surprisingly, the largest chunks of U.S. aid to Africa are going to Angola and Nigeria, Africa's two leading oil suppliers to the United States. Total U.S. security aid to these two countries in Fiscal Years 2002-04 amounted to approximately $300 million, a substantial increase over the previous three-year period.
In addition to the U.S. aid programs directed at individual countries, the United States is supporting a number of multilateral or regional initiatives aimed at enhancing African states' internal security capabilities. Typically, these programs are described as being designed to improve anti-terrorism actions in the region or to support international peacekeeping operations, but the skills and techniques being imparted–small unit maneuvers, counter-insurgency, light infantry operations, and so on—are of a sort that could easily be employed in the suppression of ethnic, religious, and sectarian strife. And while relatively modest in dollar terms–that is, when compared to the amounts being spent by the U.S. Defense Department (DoD) in the Middle East and Asia–these efforts represent a significant investment in the African setting, where military expenditures are much smaller.
Washington has used a variety of U.S. security assistance programs to enhance its military influence in Africa, including military sales and other arms transfer programs, military training, U.S. Navy exercises, and the acquisition of basing rights in strategic African countries.
U.S. Arms Sales and Military Training Programs
U.S. government-to-government arms sales to Africa through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) rose from $25.6 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2004 to $61.5 million in FY 2005 and then fell again to an estimated $20.1 million in FY 2006. Major recipients included Djibouti ($19.4 million in FY 2005 and $8.5 million in 2006) and Kenya ($23.5 million in FY 2005 and $5 million in 2006). Other major recipients in recent years have included Botswana, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Uganda.
The U.S. government has approved arms sales directly from U.S. companies through the Commercial Sales program (overseen by the U.S. Department of State) to Angola, Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda. Moreover, Algeria (a major oil producer and potentially a major supplier of natural gas to the United States) has been permitted to buy very large quantities of sophisticated counter-insurgency equipment—most notably night-vision equipment—to outfit the army and other internal security forces for operations against the Salafists. American firms delivered $78 million worth of military hardware to Algeria in FY 2004 and an estimated $80 million worth in FY 2005 and FY 2006.
The U.S. provides professional military training in the United States and in Africa to African officers through the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program. In recent years, the DoD has allocated approximately $10 million per year to provide training to some 1,300 to 1,700 African personnel annually. Major recipients include: Algeria ($750,000 in FY 2006), Angola ($400,000 in FY 2006), Chad ($250,000), Cote d'Ivoire ($50,000), Democratic Republic of Congo ($150,000), Republic of Congo ($100,000), Eritrea ($450,000), Ethiopia ($600,000), Gabon ($200,000), Nigeria ($800,000), and São Tomé ($200,000). The DoD also plans to initiate new IMET programs in Equatorial Guinea and Sudan in FY 2006.
Beginning in Fiscal Year 2003, the DoD has allocated funds to the new African Coastal and Border Security Program (ACBSP). ACBSP provides specialized training, equipment, and intelligence data to selected African countries for efforts aimed at combating smuggling, piracy, and other cross-boundary threats to internal and regional security. This effort has also included efforts to promote intelligence-sharing among the nations involved. In FY 2005, $4.0 million was appropriated for this purpose and another $4.0 million was requested for FY 2006. Among the many countries participating in this initiative are Angola, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, Nigeria, São Tomé, and Uganda. In 2003, the DoD also commenced the delivery of seven surplus U.S. Coast Guard cutters to Nigeria, significantly enhancing the Nigerian Navy's ability to protect offshore oil installations and oil tankers. In addition, the FY 2006 budget request includes $9.7 million in Economic Support Funds for the Africa Regional Fund, of which 25 percent will go to support counter-terrorism training and assistance for efforts to combat smuggling and money laundering.
Beginning in Fiscal 2006, American funds for peacekeeping training in Africa will be channeled primarily through the new Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI), replacing African Contingency Operations Training Assistance (ACOTA) and other U.S. aid programs. Out of the $114 million requested for GPOI in FY 2006, African states will receive most of the $14 million requested for training, exercises, equipment; an additional $37 million is to be funneled directly to ACOTA program accounts. The Bush administration has also requested $41 million in FY 2006 for the Africa Regional Peacekeeping account to support operations in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, and Sudan, and to strengthen the peacekeeping forces of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
In FY 2002-03, the DoD allocated approximately $16 million in Africa peacekeeping money to establish the Pan-Sahel Initiative (PSI). The PSI funding was used to deploy teams of U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) to provide counter-terrorism training and equipment to Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. This effort entailed the provision of training and equipment to six light infantry companies in the four countries. As a result of strenuous lobbying by U.S. military officials, PSI was transformed into new Trans-Saharan Initiative (TSI) in March 2004 and expanded to include the important energy-producing countries of Algeria and Nigeria, as well as Senegal and Tunisia, along with the original PSI participants. The TSI program obtained initial funding of $16 million in FY 2005 and will receive $100 million annually from FY 2007 to FY 2011, for a total of $500 million.
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