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AFRICOM, Andrew Herscowitz Power Africa, Department of Defense, National Defense University, Obama Africa, ONE Campaign, Power Africa, POWER AFRICA INITIATIVE: THE THIRD WAY, TIDES Project Africa
I have been very busy lately, but a recent notice about an event on Obama’s Power Africa Initiative sponsored by the Department of Defense caught my notice. I haven’t really had time to scratch the surface of the TIDES project, but at first glance, this really seems to be an unfortunate example of the continued militarization of US Africa Policy.
An email I received notes: “this forum intends to stimulate debate on how to build military, civilian and interagency corporation when formulating African electrification policies and legislation as stipulated by the presidential initiative.” It adds that it is a $70 billion initiative, a figure much larger than I’ve seen elsewhere.
Someone, please give me a good reason why the US military needs to be involved in formulating African electrification policies? It is even more disturbing that the event is not for attribution. We’ve got the State Department convening the head of the Power Africa Initiative, Andrew Herscowitz and several private sector players, and what they’re talking about (‘a third way of energy solutions’ apparently) is so sensitive that they’re not even willing to go on record in what is billed as “an open dialogue between energy sector stakeholders and policy makers.” No wonder the US couldn’t find an African location for AFRICOM.
How has this sort of work not been the victim of sequestration? This seems to me to be a splendid example of DoD receiving resources at the expense of State and more legitimate US public diplomacy.
I deign to call this BS, the same sort of BS that has me blogging quasi-anonymously as the government funded operation I work for has policies on blogging (writing in general really) that eviscerate my freedom of expression.
What are your thoughts? Am I overreacting? Does the TIDES project indicate some legitimate longstanding interest of DoD in Africa’s energy sector?
Africa in DC 
Australian journalist John Pilger has written quite a lot about militarization of US policy in Africa over the last several years. This has included various interventions, the sending of military advisors to Uganda (ostensibly to deal with the LRA well after Joseph Kony was still a threat), etc. Pilger argues that much of this has to do with a new Great Game being played in Africa by the US and China. In short, it’s a resource grab. The US wants to make sure it has access and is terrified that China appears to be taking over. It’s hard to argue with Pilger’s thesis, he has quite a bit of data on his side and has consistently been one of the best investigative reporters working since the late 60s:
http://johnpilger.com/articles/old-game-new-obsession-new-enemy-now-its-china
I was going to say that this is a tactic strategy to align themselves against China’s increase in Africa, but Alex beat me to it. I guess I’m not the only one thinking of the obvious.
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One of the most remarkable groups of people doing Humanitarian Assistance Disaster Relief efforts globally is the TIDES project led by Dr. Linton Wells. He has been concerned about Africa for decades in a profoundly wonderful way—his leadership has crystallized the efforts of hundreds of organizations to actually help. It would be great for you to attend this event when it occurs (postponed) and you will see one of the best things going for Africa. You can look at (youTube) talk by Dr. Wells at CrisisMappers conference (http://www.crisismappers.net) in DC last year—can see his passion to help, to assist in organizing, and to nurture solutions focused on the open-source community.
In a soft, gracious way perhaps I can suggest that you have mistaken one of the profound friends of Africa (he was born there) for something completely different than what you are inferring. Actually finding sustainable, real solutions in extremely difficult settings for the benefit of the real people is the hallmark of Lin’s incredible efforts. He could be a staggering colleague—but you have really, really misinterpreted what is going on. Hope to see you at the conference as you would get connected to some of the people who have given their lives to helping others including in Africa. The need is so huge and Dr. Wells, TIDES, and associates have the courage to actually help and stand in the gap for people dying without water, power, transportation, food, connectivity, host of things that TIDES is doing. Thousands of people are alive today because of these efforts—joining in finding solutions to extremely difficult challenges would be wonderful step toward actually helping the people in Africa from DC vantage point.
Eric (Director of Viz Center at San Diego State University, http://vizcenter.sdsu.edu) and long-term colleague of TIDES in global disasters where Dr. Wells helped more than whole governments by his wisdom, insight, and compassion.
Thanks for sharing this Eric. The crux of my complaints and the reason I was willing to make my critical remarks was that even if the end result of the work you mention has significant positive results, it is troubling that the work is conducted under the purview of the Department of Defense.
I don’t see why people who ‘have the courage to actually help’ need to be using DoD money to do so. That association is inherently troubling in my view. Why not use these funds to strengthen organizations like USAID, USADF, even DoS?
Thanks, greatly appreciate the insights—totally agree that using DoS, USAID, USADF and others is right way to accomplish things, guessing that Dr. Wells would also agree as he is largely assisting in getting people organized, but most of work is really done in open source and by people actually not connected to government at all (lot easier to just do the work, like we do at university, we just do it on our own or with others). Look forward to meeting and assisting.
Eric
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