April 20, 2000
NEW YORK, UN (PANA) - The interest of the US in supporting democratic governance in Africa led the defence department to establish the African Centre for Strategic Studies, a senior official of the department has said.
Nancy Walker, the interim director of the centre, told a press briefing in New York Wednesday that the initiative is to promote open dialogue among African military and civilian leaders in the areas of civil-military relations, national security strategy and defence economics.
The programme, she stated, was not military but aimed at breaking down barriers and lack of communication and understanding among different groups in the society.
"I wouldn't say that the US government policy toward Africa is becoming militarised. We see this defence department initiative as one way of supporting the (US) president's policy of overall engagement with Africa and building partnerships for the future," she noted.
"We believe that it is in the United States interest to get to know and work with the current and future generation of African leaders, civilian and military," she stated.
She added that the centre will provide forum for discussion on "issues that confront us all together on the continent" such as security, democracy and civilian control of the military.
The centre held its first seminar in Dakar, Senegal, from 1-12 November 1999.
Before developing the initiative, Walker said the US had extensive consultations in Africa and Europe, seeking input from civilian and military experts, the academia, non-governmental organisations.
She said one of the lessons of the consultations was the need for centre to be conducted through a series of rotating seminars.
African and US personnel, with background in military, diplomatic and other civilian fields, staff the centre's headquarters in Washington.
A faculty member of the centre, Ibrahim Wani, said its focal themes are civil-military relations, security strategy and defence economics.
On the issue of security, he said the centre usually addresses the issue of how security strategies are developed, definition of national interest for security strategy and the regional and international dimensions of security as well as the economic dimensions of security.
"Here we try to steer people to a dialogue on a much broader scale to look at the resource and economic framework of a country as a whole and what the military component of the budget is and what impact it has on a country," Wani explained.
The centre will hold its next seminar in Gaborone, Botswana, in July.