Das US-Militärkommando AFRICOM und der neue Interventionismus zwischen Aufstandsbekämpfung, Stabilisierung und Entwicklung

• The establishment of a military command for Africa (US AFRICOM) symbolizes the radical repositioning of the US military. Facilitated by the consensus in contemporary Western foreign policies that there can be no development without security, the US military has in the last ten years expanded its activities into civilian domains including development and conflict prevention. As a reaction to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, recent US military doctrines on counterinsurgency and stability operation have singled out the need for more civilian and long-term activities as a precondition for success. AFRICOM has put most of these ‘military innovations’ into practice. Due to the command’s focus on development activities, on civil-military coordination and its proposed engagement in non-war situations, AFRICOM is seen in military circles as a role model for future military practices. The paper problematizes the military’s expanding mandate and discusses its implications. It argues that military’s increasing engagement in issue of governance and development deeply blurs the normative boundary between the categories of the military and the civilian and exposes once more development as a technology of security. Furthermore, the military’s repositioning follows the dominant securitization of so-called “fragile states” and classifies social spaces along Western strategic interests. As a consequence, targeted communities find it hard to separate development efforts aimed at countering poverty and countering insurgency.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)