General Carter F. Ham, commander of U.S. Africa Command, addresses attendees of the 5th U.S. Africa Command Academic Symposium in Dar es Salaam
The US-Africa Command (US-AFRICOM) Academic Symposium, the sixth in a series is due to take place in Accra, according to a release issued by the Public Affairs Section of US-AFRICOM in Stuttgart, Germany.
The Academic Symposium, the release says, is designed to enhance the understanding of U.S Africa Command, its mission and its objectives among the academic community.
The Symposium aims to review and analyze key security developments and issues and how they impact security issues in Africa and AFRICOM’s lines of effort and identify “gaps” in the security space, and where there may be pockets of mutual convergence for future partnerships.
It also aims to profile emerging and under-utilized non-traditional security partners, highlight the best practices of existing multi-sectoral security partnerships and identify suggestions for further cooperation between Africa Command and the academic community.
It will serve as a means to solicit the academic community’s input on how best to support peace and stability in Africa as well as help foster an on-going critical dialogue between the academic community and security professionals, the release says.
The symposium, the release says, will bring together leading scholars and experts on population-centric security issues that are of shared concern to the U.S Africa Command and African countries as well.
According to the release, about 100 participants with expertise and interest in Africa’s security sector —50 to 80 of whom will represent the universities, non-governmental institutions, think tanks, Kofi Annan International Peace-keeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) Faculty and AFRICOM and component staff— will be attending the four-day event from the 23rd to the 26th of June, 2014.
US-AFRICOM will host the symposium with support from the KAIPTC on the theme for the Symposium is ‘Perspectives and Partners on Population-Centric Security Sector Transformation.’
Specific sub-topics to be addressed by panelists include: The Civil-Military Relationship, Private Sector Security, Human Rights and Security, Security as Public Service Delivery, Health and Human Security and Environmental Resources and Conflict.
US-AFRICOM, located at Kelley Barracks in Stuttgart-Moehringen, Germany, is one of the six U.S. Defense Department’s geographic combatant Commands and is responsible to the Secretary of Defense for military relations with African nations, the African Union, and African regional security organizations.
US-AFRICOM began initial operations on October 1, 2007 and officially became an independent Command on October 1, 2008.
A full-spectrum combatant Command, US-AFRICOM, is responsible for all U.S Department of Defense operations, exercises, and security co-operation on the African continent, its island nations and surrounding waters.
US-AFRICOM is part of a diverse interagency team that reflects the talents, expertise and capabilities within the entire U.S government. The command has four Senior Foreign Service (SFS) officers in key positions as well as more than 30 personnel from more than ten U.S government departments and agencies, including the Departments of State and Homeland Security and the U.S Agency for International Development.
In concert with interagency and international partners, US-AFRICOM builds defense capabilities, responds to crisis and deters, and defeats transnational threats in order to advance U.S national interests and promote regional security, stability, and prosperity.
The interagency partners of US-AFRICOM bring invaluable expertise to help the command ensure that its plans and activities complement those of other U.S government programs and fit within the context of U.S foreign policy.
Source: ISD (G. D. Zaney)
