Like the long century of colonial and Western militarization of Africa, the expansion of military presence, weapon sales, and training and action programs in Africa by U.S., NATO, and other big power nations has been largely invisible to the general public in the West excepting those cases thrust into the media concerning the Lord’s Resistance Army of Joseph Kony and the Nigerian schoolgirls captured by Boko Haram.

This blog seeks to provide a one-stop and current information site for anyone seeking to understand the policies on military training, arming, exspenditures, and operations in Africa of the Big Powers and of African governments with a focus on U.S. policy and action.  We shall seek to provide background documents, guides to web resources, and posts on developing events affecting human security and militarism across the continent.

About the author:

David Wiley edits this blog. He is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and African Studies at Michigan State University (MSU). He served as director of the African Studies Centers at MSU (1978-2008) and University of Wisconsin-Madison (1972-77). He has worked in Rhodesia and, with research on urban and rural environments, in Zambia, Kenya, and South Africa and participated in the struggles for democracy and majority rule in Southern Africa. He has been President of the national African Studies Association; Vice-Chairperson of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO; and co-chair and co-founder of the Council of National Title VI Centers and the Association of Concerned Africa Scholars. He is a member of the U.S. Africa Network and has chaired international committees of the National Science Foundation, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Sociological Association. His recent research concerns environmental issues in South Africa, militarism in Africa, and international education in U.S. universities. (See more at https://www.msu.edu/~wiley/.)