Exploring the U.S. Africa Command and a new strategic relationship with Africa: hearing before the Subcommittee on African Affairs of the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, One Hundred Tenth Congress, first session, August 1, 2007.

The United States Government Printing Office (GPO) was created in June 1860, and is an agency of the U.S. federal government based in Washington D.C. The office prints documents produced by and for the federal government, including Congress, the Supreme Court, the Executive Office of the President and other executive departments, and independent agencies. A hearing is a meeting of the Senate, House, joint or certain Government committee that is open to the public so that they can listen in on the opinions of the legislation. Hearings can also be held to explore certain topics or a current issue. It typically takes between two months up to two years to be published. This is one of those hearings.

On Feb. 6, 2007, the Bush Admin. announced the creation of a new unified combatant command, U.S. Africa Command or AFRICOM, to promote U.S. national security objectives in Africa and its surrounding waters. Prior to AFRICOM¿s establishment, U.S. military involvement on the continent was divided among 3 commands: European Command, Central Command, and Pacific Command. The new command¿s area of responsibility includes all African countries except Egypt. Contents of this report: (1) Issues for Congress; (2) The DoD Proposal for a New Africa Command; (3) U.S. Strategic Interests in Africa; (4) U.S. Mil. Assistance and Security Cooperation in Africa: An Expanding Role; (5) Regional Perspectives; (6) Congressional Interest and Oversight Issues.

This book discusses the systematic expansion of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) across the continent of Africa. This book posits that AFRICOM expansion in Africa is part of a broader system of accumulation based on a government-business-media (GBM) complex. Applying the concept at both structural and descriptive levels, the GBM complex is a function of the synergy between the state’s quest for power, businesses’ need for expansion, and the informational and hegemonic functions of media actors. The United States’ GBM complex in Africa is supported—and in some locations spearheaded—by its military, with dispossessing effects on local actors. Drawing from African case studies, analytical accounts and empirical case studies, this book explores AFRICOM’s role within this broader strategy. The volume maps both the methods and the scope of this expansion, as well as local resistance to this process, and comprises perspectives from the five regions of Africa, key sub-regional organizations and voices from Africa’s regional hegemons. This book will be of much interest to students of security studies, strategic studies, African politics and International Relations.