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The Africa Center for Strategic Studies started off the new year by hosting the Force Commanders Roundtable from January 9-11, 2024 in Washington, D.C. The three-day roundtable welcomed more than 60 attendees, including current and former force commanders, senior leaders of peace operations, and U.S. government interagency officials. The roundtable served as a platform to discuss successes, challenges, and lessons learned from two decades of peace operations in Africa, as well as identify current opportunities for coordination among the key stakeholders responsible for implementing peace operations on the continent.
The Africa Center was delighted to welcome back several of our talented alumni and community members for this event, including:
- General (Ret.) Martin Luther Agwai, Former Force Commander, United Nations-African Union Mission and Former Chief of Defense Staff, Republic of Nigeria
- Colonel Khalid Bekri, Moroccan Defense Attaché to Ethiopia and the African Union
- Major General Oumar Bikimo, Former Force Commander, G5 Sahel Joint Force in Mali
- Lieutenant General Birame Diop, United Nations Military Advisor
- His Excellency Ambassador Professor Mpho Molomo, Head of Mission, Southern African Development Community Mission in Mozambique
- Major General Diomède Ndegeya, Senior Advisor to the Minister of Defense of Burundi and Former Force Commander, African Union Mission in Somalia
- Jide Okeke, Coordinator of the UNDP Regional Programme for Africa
- Jennifer Pulliam, Peace Operations Capacity Building Division Chief, Global Peace Operations Initiative, U.S. Department of State
- Brigadier General Joyce Sitienei, Director, Kenya Peace Operations Training Center
- General (Ret.) Osman Nour Soubagle, Former Force Commander of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), and Former Chief of Defense Staff at AMISOM, Republic of Djibouti
- Paul Williams, Professor, George Washington University
Africa Center alumni and community members contributed their expertise throughout multiple panel sessions which focused on a wide range of topics including lessons learned in multilateral peace operations, the future of the AU-UN relationship, the challenges and opportunities of REC-led peace enforcement, and ad-hoc security initiatives and coordination to counter cross-border insurgencies. A highlight of the event was the Roundtable on U.S. Support for Peace Operations in Africa, co-hosted by the U.S. Department of State at the Harry S. Truman Building, which featured senior U.S. government officials, including:
- The Honorable Josh Black, Special Assistant to the President and Director of Multilateral Affairs, National Security Council
- Melanie Higgins, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of African Affairs, U.S. Department of State
- Rachel Schiller, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Programs and Operations, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, U.S. Department of State
- James Saenz, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counternarcotics and Stabilization Policy, U.S. Department of Defense
- Ambassador Michele Sison, Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, U.S. Department of State
