October 2002

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

Africa: The New Oil and Military Frontier

Dena Montague is Senior Research Associate, World Policy Institute

The tiny country of Sao Tome and Principe composed of two main islands in the Gulf of Guinea, blessed with virgin palm-fringed beaches and unspoiled beauty may soon become a hotbed of US military activity. According to Sao Tome and Principe President Fradique de Menezes, his country will soon be the site of a new US Naval base. "It will be a harbor for aircraft carriers... patrol boats and for marines stationed in the region." Although US officials have not confirmed the construction plans, the potential construction of the Naval base will fall in line with the Bush Administration's oil-driven foreign policy objectives for Africa as recommended by the newly created African Oil Policy Initiative Group (AOPIG).

In January of this year a symposium sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (a Jerusalem-based think tank) was held in Washington to discuss "African Oil and US National Security Priorities," as Africa is quickly becoming the new oil frontier for the US. According to Ed Royce (R-CA) Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Africa, "African oil should be treated as a priority for US national security post 9-11, and I think that post 9-11 it's occurred to all of us that our traditional sources of oil are not as secure as we once thought they were."

The main product emerging from the symposium was a newly-developed working group, AOPIG, composed of Congressional members, representatives from various offices in the Bush Administration, as well as oil companies, US investors, and international consultants. AOPIG then created a blueprint for energy investment in Africa that the Administration has been closely following.

AOPIG recommendations are divided into three categories: Energy Security, Developmental Strategies, and Regional Security--all encompassing the same theme of securing oil and strategic mineral resources. Under the title of Regional Security, AOPIG recommends that

1) Congress and the Administration should declare the Gulf of Guinea an area of "Vital Interest to the US";

2) A regional sub-command, similar to US Forces in Korea, should be established for the area;

3) That regional sub-command should strongly consider the establishment of a regional homeport, possibly on the islands of Sao Tome and Principe;

4) A US -Nigerian compact on regional security issues should be established to make the area more secure and thereby more attractive for direct foreign investment.

Additionally, AOPIG has declared that US interest should not be limited to oil. "The Gulf of Guinea, as part of the Atlantic oil-bearing basin, surpasses the Persian Gulf in oil supplies to the US by 2:1; moreover, it maintains significant deposits of critically important strategic minerals including chromium, uranium, cobalt, titanium, diamonds, gold, bauxite, phosphate, and copper."

Increasingly, Asian countries, Russia, eastern Europeans, and "rogue" Arab states are involved in mining in Africa. AOPIG recommends focusing on Africa to deter "US rivals such as China, adversaries such as Libya, and terrorist organizations like Al-

Qaeda to secure political, diplomatic, and economic presence in parts of Africa." To achieve the goal of oil and strategic mineral cultivation, US number one foreign policy initiative is to create "a new and vigorous focus on US military cooperation in sub-Saharan Africa, to include design of a sub-unified command structure which could produce significant dividends in the protection of US investments."

Powell's recent visit to Angola and his prescriptions for Angolan development followed AOPIG's recommendations to a "T," particularly in terms of encouraging privatization, encouraging the pursuit of "enhanced recovery techniques to access all of the oil available in the region." Also, closely in line with AOPIG's policy proposals, President Bush met leaders of the Republic of Congo, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda, South Africa, and Sao Tome and Principe, in three separate sessions at the UN. Most of the countries on Bush's guest list were either steady oil producers or in the heart of West Africa's oil exploration area, which provides the US with 15% of its oil.

Missing from Bush's list of leaders from oil producing states is Nigerian President Obasanjo who is currently dealing with growing calls for his impeachment, a Sharia court sentence of stoning a young Northern Nigerian mother to death, revelations of his leadership position in ordering military operations that resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths in 1999 and 2001, and growing resistance to oil domination in the oil-rich Niger Delta region. Powell also avoided Nigeria while in Africa. Although overt public relations have waned, the US continues to foster military and oil relations with Nigeria.

In a report from This Day in Nigeria, both the US and oil companies operating in Nigeria have been pressuring the Nigerian Government to pull out of OPEC to avoid production quotas imposed by the organization. Instead the US and the oil companies seek to promote a "US - Nigeria Alignment" which would place Nigeria as the primary oil exporter to the US

Recent comments made by Nelson Mandela elucidate the struggle between human rights activists and oil producers that will inevitably develop as the US implements its oil strategy. In a recent Newsweek article that was extremely critical of the Bush Administration's foreign policy, Mandela mentioned Dick Cheney's opposition to his release from prison. The association between Cheney and oil is clear as well as the association between Mandela and human rights. The symbolic relationship between Mandela and Cheney may represent the future of US oil politics in Africa.

A pertinent example is that of the continuing human rights struggle in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta where local women have been active in demanding basic human necessities while oil companies make millions off of their land. Although many view the women's action as a human rights triumph, according to AOPIG, community action is a security concern, and thus defined as "a recurring problem due to lack of Nigerian off-shore security capabilities." Build the military and extract the oil--the benevolent future of Africa in the hands of US policy.

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