Remarks

Ambassador Dennise Mathieu’s Remarks to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies Conference Windhoek February 26, 2009

Good morning and thank you for joining us today.  

I’m pleased to welcome the African Center for Strategic Studies, or ACSS, to Namibia.  ACSS is an excellent institution, which provides for a for Africans and others to come together,  and discuss issues that are both important and relevant.  Some of you in the room are already ACSS alumni and know it well.  You attended classes and returned to Namibia hopefully enriched by your ACSS studies and empowered by the frank interaction you had with people from other nations.

 I expect you’re ready to jump right into today’s important topics --  Developing a National Defense Strategy and Media and Security.  For those of you who are experiencing ACSS for the first time, I’d like to provide you with a little background information. 

The African Center for Strategic Studies was created in 1999 by executive order of then-President Clinton.  It’s  1 of 5 Department of Defense regional centers for security studies, and an integral component of the United States National Defense University (NDU).  Specifically, ACSS offers an apolitical forum to examine African issues, including civil-military relations, security studies, defense economics, and conflict cases.  ACSS also tries to maintain long-term, continuing engagement with and among its participants. 

And, that’s why we’re here today.  Today’s symposium is important to civilians and military officers alike.  While the military is often called upon to develop a national defense strategy, in democratic societies, elected leaders as well as average citizens have a stake in understanding it, commenting on it, and influencing what it looks like. 

In a democracy, the military can’t work alone in a bubble.  Similarly, citizens will turn to the media to inform themselves about the military’s activities and comment upon them.  The modern military must recognize this and release information about its programs and activities to the media and thereby inform the public.  There’s obviously a push and pull between the military’s need to protect information that is in the national interest and the media’s need to report information to the Namibian public. 

These are important topics that any democratic government must consider and deal with.  Therefore, we’ve invited members of the military and civilian participants from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the media and civil society  to take part in this discussion. 

Now, before I turn you over Mr. Bernath, I’d also like to talk a bit about the United States Government’s goals in Africa.  As you know, we have a new administration in Washington, led by President Barack Obama.  Our Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is hard at work and our priorities in Africa are clear.  We’ll continue to work in partnership with Namibia and other nations in Africa toward the following goals:

Ensuring that there’s peace on the African continent by offering security assistance programs to our African partners to build capacity at three levels: 
-- the African Union,
-- in regional bodies, and
-- in our bilateral relations.

Our other goals are to:
• Promotion and support of democratic systems and practices;
• Sustainable and broad-based, market-led economic growth;
• And, promotion of health and social development.

In Namibia, we’ll continue to promote these goals through the American Embassy.  The Defense Attache’s  office works to support these goals through their work and collaboration with the newly-established Africa Command, or AFRICOM.

In pursuing a balanced civil-military approach, AFRICOM intends to build durable and mutually beneficial partnerships with African nations and organizations to strengthen regional security and crisis-response capacities.  And, as do all other United States commands, AFRICOM will respond to American civilian policy oversight. 

Thank you for the opportunity to address you this morning.  Enjoy the symposium, and I hope you will continue to network in the weeks and months ahead.  I look forward to seeing you at my residence tonight and hearing about the day’s progress.  Thank you.