With the creation of United States Africa Command and the resurrection of Seventeenth Air Force, some Airmen responded with trepidation. The African continent seemed truly unknown territory, and many believed that the United States had little prior experience conducting flight operations in the region. But as Maj Paul F. Spaven points out, such concerns are largely groundless. Airmen have been operating in Africa for decades, and rich possibilities exist for crafting an air strategy to serve US interests in the region. This groundbreaking study offers a thorough analysis of the context for USAF strategy making in Africa, followed by a...

The creation of United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) began the process of resolving the complicated planning and action environment that existed when European Command (EUCOM), Central Command, and Pacific Command shared responsibility for American military interests in Africa.¹ It also created the opportunity for fresh thinking about how the United States engages with the countries of Africa. Not surprisingly, a vigorous debate has emerged regarding the creation of AFRICOM. Some view it as a diabolical tool of American imperialism. Others see it as a logical evolution in US engagement with the continent. While the debate rages on, the Air Force...

Given Africa’s immense size and long history, any analysis of its geography for Air Force strategy runs the risk of superficiality. Acknowledging that risk, this study begins with a survey of the physical and human geographies of Africa. To cope with such a huge area, the study references African regions that the United Nations (UN) has identified:

Eastern Africa—Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mozambique, Réunion, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe

Middle Africa—Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and...

The scope of this study’s historical survey is restricted to the French, British, and American experiences in Africa. Furthermore, it addresses only applications of military airpower outside large-scale conflict. Most notably, this eliminates both world wars, the Algerian War of Independence, and Israeli airpower exploits in Egypt from consideration. This choice was motivated for reasons beyond that of brevity. Specifically, the experiences of Great Britain, France, and the United States in Africa share similarities with future American involvement there: foreign powers located a great distance from Africa, pursuing national interests in Africa that are not immediately vital to their national...

In the wake of 9/11, Africa regained the strategic importance lost when the Cold War ended and the continent was no longer a scene for proxy wars and superpower maneuvering. The following examines current US military and policy relationships with Africa.

Presently, the two largest US military operations in Africa are Operation Enduring Freedom-Trans Sahara (OEF-TS) and Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA). Both began in response to the attacks of 9/11 to address Africa’s role as a source of terrorist training and staging for global operations. OEF-TS is the military component of the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership (TSCTP).¹ The...

Any attempt to predict the future is bound to fail more often than succeed. Nonetheless, Airmen should endeavor to anticipate the environment they will find in Africa, if only to provide a basis of planning from which to depart when events dictate. This chapter briefly discusses four things the Air Force can expect in Africa: a large group of stakeholders at work, competition for Africa’s resources, humanitarian crises, and diverse security challenges.

The first step to creating and implementing a successful USAF strategy in Africa is realizing that it cannot be considered in a vacuum. Military thinkers are familiar with...

Attempting to prescribe one best way to think strategically about Africa would be perilous. The vast and expanding literature on strategy, replete with divergent ideas, makes this a topic that can never be mastered, only appreciated for its complexity. Nevertheless, a few schools of thought have particular relevance to an Air Force strategy for Africa: complex system analysis, dialectic strategy, and risk management.

Like any large collection of people, Africa is a complex, adaptive system. “We are dealing with a system when (a) a set of units or elements is interconnected so that changes in some elements or their relations...

The United States Air Force, along with the other services and many nonmilitary government entities, stands at the beginning of a new era of American engagement with Africa. This era promises many rewards for the Air Force in its role as a servant of the nation’s interests, but the attendant risks require the service to consider its African strategy carefully. The historical context in which airpower may be applied in Africa is rich, yielding many lessons for the Air Force. Existing national guidance points the way toward a strategy, but it is too vague for the service to take action....