Late last year the Atlantic Council, the preeminent pro-NATO think tank on either side of the Atlantic [3], co-released a report entitled "Advancing U.S., African, and Global Interests: Security and Stability in the West African Maritime Domain." It proceeds from the fact that "The Gulf of Guinea is at the brink of becoming a greater supplier of energy to the United States than the Persian Gulf and is therefore of far higher strategic importance than has historically been the case."
The report recommends enhanced U.S. government concentration on "a vital region to maintaining U.S. energy security, prosperity, and homeland security."
It also calls for a higher level of integration between U.S. and European nations - that is, NATO and European Union member states - in respect to Africa, and promotes the following programmatic goals:
The establishment of "an interagency coordinating body to conduct strategic planning, oversee implementation and track progress in West African maritime security assistance and performance."
Working with local security organizations like the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) and its affiliated African Standby Force brigade on "a comprehensive proof of concept pilot project...to develop the capabilities and conditions necessary for securing the maritime domain as a model for the region."
Setting up a Gulf of Guinea coastal naval operation, "including the sharing of assets, establishment of joint operations centers, and assignment of key functions and centers of excellence."
And to expand and deepen the work of the U.S.-Nigeria Binational Commission established by the U.S. State Department last April "as a vehicle for security cooperation, including maritime security." [4]
Three months after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton inaugurated a strategic dialogue with Nigeria, she met with Foreign Minister Ansuncao Afonso dos Anjos of Angola (on the southern end of the Gulf of Guinea) in Washington to sign the U.S.-Angola Strategic Partnership Dialogue, "which formalizes increased bilateral partnerships in energy, security, trade and democracy promotion."
On the occasion, Clinton recounted that after her visit to Angola in August of the preceding year "a bilateral group on energy cooperation met in November 2009 to outline shared U.S. and Angolan objectives in developing Angola's oil and gas reserves, promoting greater transparency in its oil sector and developing renewable energy sources." [5]
The security and defense agreements with Nigeria and Angola, and demands by the Atlantic Council and like-minded parties that they be qualitatively and comprehensively expanded to the entire region, are the inevitable culmination of efforts by the Pentagon over the past nine years.
During that period U.S. naval vessels, troops and major military officials have been in Gulf of Guinea littoral states continuously, solidifying relations with Liberia (where the Pentagon has built a military from scratch), Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), Angola, and Sao Tome and Principe. [6] All except for Ivory Coast, which is currently in turmoil and facing the prospect of armed intervention by ECOWAS African Standby Force troops and the armed forces of assorted NATO states.
Until AFRICOM achieved full operational capability on October 1, 2008, Africa was assigned to U.S. European Command (EUCOM) except for Egypt, the nations of the Horn of Africa and four Indian Ocean island states that were under Central Command and Pacific Command.
The top commander of EUCOM is jointly NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe. AFRICOM, then, was created as the Pentagon's first post-Cold War foreign military command under the tutelage of Marine General James Jones from 2003 to 2006 and Army General Bantz John Craddock from 2006 to 2009.
AFRICOM and the Africa Partnership Station (APS) have been envisioned since their inception as U.S. military operations that included the involvement of NATO, especially its member states that are the former colonial masters in the Gulf of Guinea area: Britain, France, Portugal and Spain. [7] In 2005 the U.S. submarine tender Emory S. Land led naval exercises in the Gulf of Guinea with naval officers from Benin, Gabon, Ghana, and Sao Tome and Principe along with counterparts from Britain, France, Portugal and Spain.
APS deployments include military officers from other NATO states and the African Standby Force is modeled after the NATO Response Force.
In 2002 U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld demanded the creation of a new NATO rapid reaction force, a 21,000-troop strike group that could "deal swiftly with crises outside its traditional area of operation." [8] He won support for the concept at a meeting of Alliance defense chiefs in September and two months later what became the NATO Response Force was endorsed at the NATO summit in Prague.
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