Continental Shift Why the Pentagon should pay less attention to Africa.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/01/25/continental_shift?print=yes&hidecomments=yes&page=full

Continental Shift

Why the Pentagon should pay less attention to Africa.

BY GORDON ADAMS | JANUARY 25, 2013

The U.S. military has left Iraq and will leave Afghanistan soon. One might assume that this means a lower level of U.S. military operations overseas. Not so fast. Military operations in Mali and the connected Algerian hostage crisis have highlighted a major shift in U.S. military strategy and overseas engagement, especially in our support for security forces in Africa.
Gradually, through a growing security assistance program and special operations forces action, U.S. engagement in Africa is shifting from a focus on governance, health, and development to a deepening military engagement. And while the Pentagon portrays this expanding military engagement as a way to empower Africans, it is actually building security relationships that could backfire, harming our long-term foreign policy interests.