African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance

In October 1996,{{cite web

|url=http://clinton2.nara.gov/Africa/19980401-20179.html

|title=Fact Sheet-African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI)

|location=The White House

|publisher=Office of the Press Secretary

|date=1 April 1998

|access-date=2 September 2013

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130308113254/http://clinton2.nara.gov/Africa/19980401-20179.html

|archive-date=8 March 2013

|url-status=dead

}} during the Clinton administration, The U.S. government established the African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI) force, to enable timely response to humanitarian crises and empower peacekeeping missions on the African continent.

The ACRI's immediate objective was to increase the number of African states with effective response capability for peacekeeping and humanitarian relief challenges, thereby improving stability and peace within their own borders and their sub-regions.

{{cite book

|author=Clinton, William J.

|url=http://nssarchive.us/?page_id=71

|title= A National Security Strategy For A New Century

|date=December 1999

|place=Washington, DC

|publisher=The White House

|access-date=2013-08-22

}}

{{cite thesis

|author=Pollard, Lt Comdr A.

|type=Master's Thesis

|year=2000

|title=An analysis of the measures of effectiveness for the African Crisis Response Initiative

|publisher=U.S. Army Command and General Staff College

|place=Fort Leavenworth, KS

|pages=66–67

|access-date=2013-08-22

|url=http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA382615|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130903095044/http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA382615|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 3, 2013}} The pressing reason for establishing the ACRI at the time had been the imminent possibility of a major genocide in Burundi, similar to the ethnic cleansing which had taken place in 1994 in Rwanda. However, once the ACRI was formed, these murders continued, yet the force never officially intervened. Until its replacement by ACOTA by the ACRI in 2004 and despite ongoing mass murders occurring in the Darfur province of the Sudan, the U.S. government never deployed the ACRI forces to put pause to genocide in Africa. Despite the ACRI’s founding articles which call for humanitarian intervention in Africa, no action was taken.

The harrowing losses of the U.S. military in Somalia were instrumental in the creation of the ACRI. In 1992, following the fall of the Siad Barre regime, the U.S. opted for a military intervention which it named Restore Hope but the operation soon escalated when the focus shifted from humanitarian aid to an attempt at restructuring Somalia’s government. By 1993 following the Battle of Mogadishu (1993), portrayed in the book and movie Black Hawk Down,{{cite book

|year=2001

|author=Bowden, M.

|title=Black Hawk down, A story of modern war.

|url=https://archive.org/details/blackhawkdownsto2001bowd

|url-access=registration

|place=New York, NY

|publisher=Signet}} the mission in Somalia was considered a failure.{{cite book

|author1=Johnson, Dominic D. P.

|author2=Tierney, Dominic

|title=Failing to win: perceptions of victory and defeat in international politics

|publisher=Harvard University Press

|year=2006

|page=210

|isbn=978-0-674-02324-6}} The Clinton administration was criticised for the operation's outcome, primarily due to the decision to abandon the region before completing the operation's humanitarian and security objectives, and for their failure to recognize the threat Al-Qaida elements posed in Somalia as well as to U.S. security interests at home.{{cite book

|author=Miniter, Richard

|title=Losing Bin Laden: How Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror

|publisher= Regnery Publishing

|year=2004

|page=44

|isbn=978-0-89526-048-2}}

This off-shot was that the U.S. State Department pressured the UN against intervening in the 1994 Rwandan genocide{{cite web

|title="The Clinton Administration's Policy on Reforming Multilateral Peace Operations", Executive Summary of Presidential Decision Directive

|date= 25 May 1994

|url=https://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/NSC/htm/documents/NSCDocl/}}{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} Even as the graphic violence dominated the world press, the U.S. government was refusing to acknowledge that a genocide had taken place.{{Cite book

|editor-last=Ferroggiaro

|editor-first=William |year=2001

|title= The US and the Genocide in Rwanda 1994: Evidence of Inaction

|url= http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB53/index.html

|location= Washington, DC

|publisher=National Security Archive

}} African leaders including South African President Nelson Mandela considered the formation of the ACRI as a cynical attempt by the U.S. to improve its image following the Rwandan genocide. The United States which had been willing to mobilize the United Nations to stop ethnic cleansing in European Bosnia has ensured that the UN did not send troops to end the Rwandan genocide in 1994.{{cite journal

|author=Aning, Emmanuel K.

|title=African Crisis Response Initiative and the New African Security (Dis)order |year=2001

|journal=African Journal of Political Science

|volume=6

|issue=1

|pages=43–67

|doi=10.4314/ajps.v6i1.27303 |s2cid=154777056 |url=http://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/African%20Journals/pdfs/political%20science/volume6n1/ajps006001003.pdf}}

The Organization of African Unity (OAU) convened a panel of experts to investigate the genocide in Rwanda. They concluded that during the civil war, genocide had occurred, and pointed to the tolerance for genocidal violence committed by African leaders. By naming their report "Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide", the panel pointed to the United States and UN as responsible for this tragedy. Regional leaders such as Michel Micombero of Burundi, Idi Amin of Uganda, Emperor Bokassa of the Central African Republic and Mobutu of Zaire directly and indirectly contributed to the commencement war and genocide by taking a stance of indifference toward state-implemented criminal recommendation which had exploited myths of Tutsi and Hutu origins.{{cite web|url=http://cec.rwanda2.free.fr/doc/Rapport_OUA/Rwanda-f/oua.htm|title=Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide|author=Gerald Caplan|author-link=Gerald Caplan}}

ACOTA's 25 partners included Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia.

• Africa Peacekeeping Program

• {{cite journal

|author=Campbell, Horace G.

|year=2000

|title=The U.S. Security Doctrine and the Africa Crisis Response Initiative. Pretoria: Africa Institute of South Africa.}}

• {{cite journal

|author=Frazier, Jendayi

|year= 1997

|title= The African Crisis Response Initiative: Self-Interested Humanitarianism.

|journal=Brown Journal of World Affairs

|volume=IV

|issue=2}}

• {{cite journal

|author1=Henk, Dan

|author2=Metz, Steven

|year=1997

|title= The United States and the Transformation of African Security: The African Crisis Response Initiative and Beyond

|publisher= Strategic Studies Institute

|place=Carlisle Barracks, Pa.}}

• {{cite thesis

|type=

|url=http://cdn.peaceopstraining.org/theses/karis.pdf

|title=A Comparative Study of Two Peacekeeping Training Programs: The African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI) and the African Contingency Operations Training Assistance Program (ACOTA)

|author=Karis, Daniel G.

|date=23 July 2009

|publisher=United Nations Institute for Training and Research

|place = New York, NY.

|access-date= 3 September 2013

}}

• {{cite thesis

|type=doctoral dissertation

|url=http://cdn.peaceopstraining.org/theses/karis.pdf

|title=Preparing peacekeeprs: an analysis of the African Contingency Operations, Training, and Assistance program command and staff operational skills course

|author=Karis, Daniel G.

|year=2010

|publisher= Kansas state University

|place = Manhattan, Kansas

|access-date= 3 September 2013

}}

• {{cite journal

|author=McCallie, Marshall

|year= 1998

|title= ACRI: Positive U.S. Engagement with Africa.

|journal= USIA Electronic Journal

|volume=3

|issue=2}}

{{Reflist}}

This article incorporates public domain text from US government websites.

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20050830095828/http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/dod/acri.htm GlobalSecurity.org]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20041101121249/http://www.pentagon.mil/news/Apr1998/n04141998_9804141.html U.S.-Trained African Forces Tool for Peace], Linda D. Kozaryn, American Forces Information Service

Category:Politics of Africa

Category:Military in Africa

Category:Military education and training in the United States

Category:Non-combat military operations involving the United States

Category:Peacekeeping

Category:Bureau of African Affairs