Africa Command

In the current Esquire, Thomas Barnett offers an enthusiastic look at the new Africa Command. Brad Plumer's not excited nor is the Center for Global Development. A member of John Edwards team has waxed fairly enthusiastically to me about this sort of thing, but was also indicating that it would be better to develop less militarized methods of trying to do it like the "Marshall Corps" proposal he's outlined.

I get a little queasy at the idea that we have meaningful national security interests in Africa (helping people not get sick and die is good, though) since by whatever definition we've decided the Horn of Africa is a strategically significant location everywhere is crucially important.