Africa Center for Strategic Studies

Centre d'études stratégiques de l'Afrique

Centro de Estudos Estratégicos de África

NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: Mar. 2,

Africa Center for Strategic Studies

Welcomes Next Generation of African Military Leaders
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Africa Center for Strategic Studies, located at the National
Defense University (NDU) at Fort Lesley J. McNair, welcomed on Mar. 2, 2010, 62 military
officers representing 38 African nations to its 2010 Next Generation of African Military Leaders
Course.

The four-week program, which continues through Mar. 26, will focus on enhancing
professionalism, ethics and leadership in African militaries. The officers will examine Africa‟s
contemporary and emerging security threats and analyze civil-military relations on the continent
to determine the role and place of professional military officers in advancing national security in
democratizing states.

In his opening remarks, Ambassador William M. Bellamy (retired), Africa Center Director, said,
“I do not need to tell this audience of African military officers that very few of the security threats
facing African states today can be resolved by military means alone. All elements of national
power must be harnessed to deal with the multiple sources of insecurity that exist in most African
states today.”

“The most successful leaders, military and civilian,” he continued, “will be those who recognize
this requirement and are able to bring whole-of-government approaches to bear on the security
problems they face.”

Ambassador Thomas C. Krajeski, NDU Senior Vice President, welcomed the course participants
to Washington, D.C. He cited what President Barack Obama said about a year ago when he
opened the newest building at NDU: “It falls to institutions like this and individuals like you—
and he would have included you within this group as well—to help us understand the world as it
is, to develop the capacity that we need to confront emerging danger, and to active purpose and
pragmatism to turn this moment of peril into one of promise. That is how we will find new
pathways to peace and prosperity. That is the work we must do.”

(more)

National Defense University Website: www.africacenter.org

300 5th Avenue, Building 62 Telephone: 202-685-7300
Fort McNair Facsimile: 202-685-3210
Washington, DC 20319-5066
AFRICA CENTER WELCOMES AFRICAN OFFICERS 2

Brigadier General Dominique Djindéré, Chief of Defense Staff, Burkina Faso, and keynote
speaker at the opening session of the course, spoke about Africa‟s security challenges and the
importance of senior military leadership in the region. Explaining that the challenges facing
Africa‟s defense and security sector are numerous and originate from both within and outside the
sector itself, he said, “In both cases, the nature and the quality of the command and leadership
exercised by the senior officers constituting the entire chain of command, in their mission to
establish a „new military governance,‟ are what determines the ability to effectively address those
challenges.”

“In any given country, however,” General Djindéré stressed, “the expression of a strong political
will and respect for the rules of democratic governance by all the socio-political stakeholders of
that country are the true catalysts that will make it possible to attain that level of effectiveness.”

In closing, General Djindéré reminded the African officers in the audience that “you must be the
catalysts for creating defense and security forces that are in perfect harmony with the changes and
obligations of democracy and progress so ardently desired for the African continent.”

Pointing out that the course is accredited, with eligible officers receiving three semester hours of
graduate-level credit, Monde Muyangwa, Ph.D., the Africa Center‟s Academic Dean, said, “The
accreditation of our Next Generation of African Military Leaders Course further establishes the
Africa Center as a solid academic institution focusing on strategic-level African security and
policy issues.”

The officers attending the course, mostly majors and lieutenant colonels, were selected by their
countries to attend the course because of their command experience or staff responsibilities as
well as their recognized leadership potential.

The course has been offered at least once a year since 2005. The program is devoted to leadership
and ethics in the context of issues ranging from developing and implementing a national security
strategy and aligning resources to national security goals to civil-military relations, security and
democracy.

Other sessions will be devoted to military, human rights and humanitarian law, conflict
management and peace support operations, counter-terrorism in Africa, and security sector
reform.

Complementing the rigorous classroom work taught by African, American and European experts,
the African officers will also travel to the Army War College at Carlisle, Pa.; Quantico Marine
Corps Base; the Pentagon; State Department and Congress to learn more about effective civil-
military cooperation, good governance and democratization.

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