Diplomacy, too, requires the equivalent of geographic commands — with top-notch assistant secretaries of state to manage relations in each key region without worrying about getting on the daily agenda of the secretary of state for menial approvals.
This represents an enormous increase from the 172 "missions, activities, programs, and exercises" that AFRICOM inherited from other geographic commands when it began operations in 2008. .
In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month, Rodriguez noted that the 10 exercises, 55 operations, and 481 security cooperation activities made AFRICOM "an extremely active geographic command".
It is one of three similar teams on the continent -- the others being SOCFWD-Central Africa and SOCFWD-North and West Africa -- which, according to the military, "shape and coordinate special operations forces security cooperation and engagement in support of theater special operations command, geographic combatant command, and country team goals and objectives". .
Add to those task forces the Special Operations Command Forward (SOC FWD) elements, small teams which, according to the military, "shape and coordinate special operations forces security cooperation and engagement in support of theater special operations command, geographic combatant command, and country team goals and objectives".
In 2011, the 6'5" former paratrooper received his fourth star and two years later the coveted helm of one of the Defense Department's six geographic combatant commands, becoming the third chief of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM).
The proposal is part of a broader blueprint for reorganizing the Unified Command Plan, other elements of which could deal with changing the geographic responsibilities of other combatant commands, military officials said.
The Department of Defense divides the world into six (formerly five) areas of geographic responsibility, or "regional combatant commands": European, Northern, Southern, Central, Pacific, and now "Africa".
Nothing had yet happened, in other words, yet the fact that nuclear waste would be passing through common geographic points of reference clearly commanded attention.
Whatever the date of foundation, it is certain that the two towns were established for geographic and mercantile reasons, as they commanded a natural east-west trade route over the Spree River.
The borders of command areas allow for a geographic regression discontinuity design, where underlying soil, weather, and institutional characteristics are exactly the same but ownership structure changes across boundaries.
