Category: U.S. Africa Strategy
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Seven Pillars of Military Integration for the DRC-Rwanda Peace Accord
Efforts by the United States and Qatar to end the decades-long conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo have accelerated significantly since late June, building on earlier mediation initiatives led by the African Union, the East African Community, and the Luanda and Nairobi processes. The conflict originated in the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Read.
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Reading between the lines of H.R. 2633 (aka the South Africa bill)
On a recent call, a client was asking about H.R.2633 (U.S.-South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act of 2025), which is now scheduled to be marked up by the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC) this morning. (Note: For those unfamiliar with Hill process, a markup is when Committee members debate, amend, and vote on legislation before Read.
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Quick Reflections on DRC/Liberia Election to the UN Security Council
If there were an administration in the U.S. next year that valued the UN – and multilateralism more broadly – the election of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Liberia to the UN Security Council would be a strategic windfall. Why? Because all three African non-permanent members of the Security Council next year (DRC, Read.
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Highlights from SFRC Hearing on Security Assistance in Africa
Yesterday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health held a hearing on U.S. Security Assistance in Africa. The hearing was webcast, and you can also find the testimonies of Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Puneet Talwar, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs Amanda Dory, and Lauren Read.
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The time Africa came to DC (Well, some of it.)
Today marks Day 1 of the inaugural U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, which is being held in Washington, DC from August 4-6, 2014. Yours truly will be observing the Summit’s events from afar, as my invitation appears to have gotten lost in the mail… In the weeks leading up to the Summit, there were concerns that the event might not contribute to advancing the Obama Read.
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Fostering Democracy, Good Governance, and Human Rights in Africa Through Security Sector Assistance
Yesterday, I presented on a National Endowment for Democracy panel on “Fostering Democracy, Good Governance, and Human Rights in Africa Through Security Sector Assistance.” Video of the event can be found here and links to the papers we presented are below: Christopher Holshek from the Alliance for Peacebuilding presented on Mali’s Teachable Moment: The Primacy of Civil Authority in Read.
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The Trans Sahara Counter Terrorism Partnership: Building Partner Capacity to Counter Terrorism and Violent Extremism in the Sahel & Maghreb
A few months ago, I published the study I had been working on during my IPA Assignment at the Center for Complex Operations at National Defense University – The Trans Sahara Counter Terrorism Partnership – Building Partner Capacity to Counter Terrorism and Violent Extremism. The study discusses the origins of TSCTP, which is rather unique by U.S. Read.
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U.S. Foreign Policy and Security Cooperation in Sub-Saharan Africa (& musings on PPD-23)
This is a month overdue, but in case you missed it, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield and Commander, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) General David Rodriguez held an online press conference on U.S. Foreign Policy and Security Cooperation in Sub-Saharan Africa. You can find a video with closed captioning on YouTube and remarks on the Read.
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Lesley on Africa attends DAWN Weekend
Dear Readers, This weekend, I attended the Diaspora African Women’s Network (DAWN) 6th Annual Leadership Awards and had a blast meeting fellow DAWNers and supporters of DAWN. DAWN’s mission is to develop and support the next generation of African diaspora women leaders focused on African affairs by promoting the role of the diaspora in Africa’s development, diversifying the African Read.
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Lesley on Africa LOVES Fieldwork (or In Praise of Fieldwork)
As the title of this post so emphatically declares, I love when my projects require fieldwork. I’m working on a project in FY13 that has had me traveling to African Country A (Niger), African Country B (Chad), African Country C (Mali), African Country D (Senegal), African Country E (Morocco), African Country F (Algeria) and African Read.
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Comments on President Obama’s Africa trip & US-Africa relations published in Think Africa Press
Today, President Obama kicks off his second visit to Africa as since becoming president, and will be visiting Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania over the course of the next week. Accordingly, Thomas Tieku, Mwangi Kimenyi, Cobus van Staden, Witney Schneidman, and I are featured in Think Africa Press’ Experts Weekly: What Next for US-Africa Relations? Read.
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Advancing Peace and Security in Africa
The Africa Growth Initiative at Brookings has just published a new report – “Top Five Reasons Why Africa Should Be a Priority for the United States.” The format of the report is as follows (and includes a contribution from yours truly): Introduction: Why Africa Matters to the United States by Mwangi Kimenyi Advancing Peace and Security Read.
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AFRICOM Testimony to SASC: Part II (Projected Impact of Sequestration)
During General Ham’s appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) earlier this week, he delivered prepared testimony and responded to questions posed to him by members of the committee. (You can find the archived webcast of hearing here.) Most of the questions concerned AFRICOM’s posture for crisis response operations, which I covered in an earlier blog post, and the projected impact Read.
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AFRICOM Testimony to SASC: Part I (Posture for Crisis Response Ops)
Yesterday, General Carter Ham, outgoing Commander, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) regarding the programs and budget needed to meet current and future requirements within the AFRICOM area of responsibility (AoR). This was General Ham’s last testimony to the SASC in this position, as General David Rodriguez has been confirmed as General Read.
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Capacity-Building Key to AFRICOM’s Mission
(Originally published in World Politics Review on February 5, 2013) Across the globe, partner capacity-building through steady-state theater security cooperation plays an increasingly important role in the forward defense posture of the United States. The Defense Department’s 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review identifies building the security capacity of partner states as a key mission, while the 2010 National Security Strategy argues that the Read.
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Some brief thoughts on U.S. Africa policy in a second Obama term
Dear Readers, I almost hesitate to add another voice to the “U.S. Africa policy in a (insert presidential candidate here) Administration” debate, but here goes: Since the release in June of this year of the U.S. Strategy Towards Sub-Saharan Africa, there have been many critiques of the Obama Administration’s Africa policy. Indeed, at first glance, my Read.
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Reflections of an Africa specialist trapped in the Beltway
On my About Me page, I alluded to the possibility of writing about my experience traveling in Africa – to add an entertaining counterweight to my more analytical rants and musings on the events unfolding on the continent. The following is actually a non-analytical rant/musing on my current case of writer’s block and my exile to the Beltway, Read.
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U.S. strategy towards sub-Saharan Africa released
I’m in transit to Mombasa, so this post is going to be brief. But I wanted to mention that yesterday, the Obama Administration released a paper detailing the four pillars of U.S. Strategy Towards Sub-Saharan Africa: Strengthen democratic institutions Spur economic growth, trade, and investment Advance peace and security Promote opportunity and development These priorities are quite similar to the ones Read.
Lesley Anne Warner, PhD: Insight | Strategy | Impact 
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