STUTTGART, Germany — When Adm. Thad Allen starts his speeches, oftentimes he likes to kick things off with the same line: "If you looked at this planet from space, you wouldn’t call it Earth, you would call it ‘Ocean.’ "
And in the case of Africa, a continent with nearly 19,000 miles of coastline, water also looms large when it comes to security concerns such as piracy, drug trafficking and the economic scourge of illegal fishing.
"There are significant maritime issues in Africa," said Allen, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.
On Thursday, Allen was in Stuttgart to meet with leaders of the newly established U.S. Africa Command, which officially became the military’s sixth unified command on Oct. 1.
The Coast Guard, which functions as both a law enforcement agency and counts as one of the military’s five armed services, is uniquely positioned to help in the AFRICOM effort to assist smaller countries in securing their coastlines, Allen said.
"Quite frankly, when you get below the 15 or 20 very large countries in this world, most of the nations really need a coast guard more than they would need a navy for protecting their national security interests," he said.
Incidents such as recent ship hijackings off the coast of Somalia highlight some of the problems.
Another problem is the $1 billion illegal fishing industry, officials say.
Coordinating with governments to establish enforceable laws, training coast guards to better patrol their waters and bringing in Africans for training at the international maritime officers course are some of the programs aimed at securing the waterways.
"Our vision is not separate from (AFRICOM commander) Gen. (William "Kip") Ward’s vision: find out what their problems are and help them achieve the goals they’ve set," Allen said.
Allen continued: "International partnerships are absolutely essential. One nation cannot handle maritime security by themselves anymore. It takes a global network. We need to be global to be effective in the United States, but also to be effective for our defense partners and the combatant commands like EUCOM and AFRICOM."
The missions generally involve limited numbers of U.S. personnel on the ground at a given time. In the case of the Coast Guard, small teams are usually cycled in for two- and three-week projects.
"Our footprints tend to be small," Allen said. "It’s much more effective training."
Some missions, however, are larger in scope.
Back in June, the Coast Guard deployed the cutter Dallas to West and Central Africa as part of the largest multi-lateral combined maritime law enforcement operation ever conducted in Africa.
The Dallas, which recently completed its mission with the Cape Verdean Coast Guard, conducted real world law enforcement missions that officials say showcases the types of military to military partnerships that are possible in Africa.
Capt. Phillip Heyl, who represents the Coast Guard at AFRICOM headquarters in Stuttgart, said such alliances are a key to advancing U.S. strategic interests.
"Africa is a perfect example of transnational threats. Illegal narcotics, arms trafficking, human trafficking, a full range of things the U.S. has an interest in stopping. Transnational threats take transnational solutions," Heyl said.
"There’s a very large demand signal [from African countries] to have these maritime security-type [programs] come in. The fishing stocks are valuable to them and they realize they need to exercise control."
Illegal fishing goes on "with impunity," Allen added.
"Fish stocks don’t stay in one place. It’s a resource we all have an interest in protecting."
