Guarding supply lines

Interfax reports that the U.S. signed a new "military cooperation plan" with Azerbaijan on Friday. In 2003, the Caspian Guard initiative was launched, under which the U.S. would carry out joint military exercises with Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. The U.S. has been trying to establish mobile army bases in the country, which is stragically important for two overlapping reasons: the soon-to-be-opened Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and the adjacence of Azerbaijan to Iran. Regarding the pipeline, it will enable Caspian oil to be transported through the Caucasus to Ceyhan, Turkey, and is controlled by an Anglo-American consortium led by BP. Regarding Iran, in April it deployed troops to the Azerbaijani border, and there are rumors that Iran has drawn up a list of locations in Azerbaijan that would be bombed in the event of a U.S. attack. Earlier this year, U.S. undersecretary of State Matthew Byrza told a press conference in next-door Georgia that the U.S. was hoping to use Azerbaijani air fields for military purposes, leading some to speculate about a possible "northern front" against Iran. This prompted the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry to issue a statement assuring the world that "Azerbaijan's territory will not be at the disposal of any country for hostile acts against neighbours."

Meanwhile, the U.S. is trying to establish an AFRICOM base in the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea region, a move that the Nigerian government is trying to block. It is well worth remembering that AFRICOM is taking over what was formerly the responsibility of CENTCOM, which was formed in the 1970s to enforce the Carter doctrine of ensuring U.S. access to Middle East Oil.
The U.S. is also carrying out joint military operations with states in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and West Africa (which will supply a fifth of U.S. oil by 2020) under the rubric of AFRICOM. One such operation in Mali, known as "Flintlock 2007," led Tuareg rebels to fire on a U.S. military plane on Wednesday.