African Partnership Station 2009

I am really looking forward to this, and if I get a chance I would love to find a way to get a PAO on that ship I can email continuously and get updates. This is a powerful strategic pacetime initiative that deserves more attention, because it is a model to continue building leading into the future.

Janes is discussing the upcoming deployment of the USS Nashville (LPD 13) in January 2009 as part of the continuing African Partnership Station.

Nashville will be the second small deck amphibious vessel to join APS following the deployment of USS Fort McHenry in late 2007. However, the mission of the ship will be very different to its predecessor as it will provide advanced training in a select number of countries.

Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Gabon will host the 17,244-ton Austin-class ship, which has onboard training teams available to give lessons in basic seamanship, small boat handling, VBSS (visit, board, search and seizure) techniques, search and rescue, data management and how to run an operations centre.

People have asked on the blog what I think Obama is talking about when he discusses the necessity for a well funded civilian corps on par with our military. I don't subscribe to political paranoia, and while I have no evidence to support my assumption, I think Barack Obama is talking about building on the capabilities best outlined in the Global Fleet Station and other Navy soft power strategic initiatives.

Essentially, I think he is talking about Thomas Barnett's SysAdmin function as outlined in his writings. I got an advanced copy of Dr. Barnett's upcoming book Great Powers: America and the World after Bush over the weekend, and while I haven't read it completely yet when I saw this article in Janes it triggered something I've been reading about in that book.

One of several tenets for crafting Grand Strategy Dr. Barnett discusses in his upcoming book is security. Barnett outlines how Grand-Strategic analysis starts with security, which is always 100% of your problem until it is reasonably achieved, and at that point it becomes at most 10% of your ultimate solution. Without going into detail, it is not difficult to see how that idea has direct application to the Gulf of Guinea. I will let the book come out in final copy before expanding on that thought, but with this deployment to take place around the same time as Barnett's book release in January, don't be surprised if I draw several associations between what we are seeing here and how this soft power approach is part of the larger strategic utility belt in the arsenal of a nations smart policy.

H/T: Axe