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Tomorrow's Battlefield: U.S. Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa (Dispatch Books) Paperback – May 19, 2015
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Nick Turse
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Nick Turse
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Print length232 pages
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LanguageEnglish
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PublisherHaymarket Books
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Publication dateMay 19, 2015
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Dimensions5.5 x 0.75 x 8 inches
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ISBN-109781608464630
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ISBN-13978-1608464630
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Gripping and meticulous, Nick Turse’s reporting on Africa sheds much-needed light on shadowy missions the U.S. military would rather keep secret. His investigations of U.S. military missions in Africa in Tomorrow’s Battlefield reveal a secret war with grave implications for Africans and Americans, alike.
Glenn Greenwald
"Nick Turse’s investigative reporting has revealed a remarkable picture of evolving US military operations in Africa that have been concealed from view, but have ominous portent, as he demonstrates vividly and in depth.”
Noam Chomsky
"In the first book length account of AFRICOM’s operations, Nick Turse chronicles how in a very short time, Africa went from the margins of US foreign policyto be not just the warzone of tomorrow, but of today."
Sean Jacobs, international affairs faculty at The New School and founder of Africa is a Country
"U.S. military training missions, joint exercises, military aid operations in many different countries, most ruled by repressive regimes... sound like the Middle East? The Arabian Peninsula? Think again. The indispensable Nick Turse introduces us to the rapidly expanding American military footprint in Africa. It is astounding how few other journalists have paid attention to this highly important story."
Adam Hochschild, author of To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 and King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa
"A dogged and intrepid journalist who won't take 'no comment' for an answer, Nick Turse has done a fantastic job of exposing the U.S. military's expansion into Africa and the proliferation of its secret missions on the continent."
Craig Whitlock, Pentagon correspondent, Washington Post
"Tomorrow's Battlefield is an urgently needed resource for all those seeking ways to end military intervention in Africa."
Lee Sustar, Socialist Worker
Glenn Greenwald
"Nick Turse’s investigative reporting has revealed a remarkable picture of evolving US military operations in Africa that have been concealed from view, but have ominous portent, as he demonstrates vividly and in depth.”
Noam Chomsky
"In the first book length account of AFRICOM’s operations, Nick Turse chronicles how in a very short time, Africa went from the margins of US foreign policyto be not just the warzone of tomorrow, but of today."
Sean Jacobs, international affairs faculty at The New School and founder of Africa is a Country
"U.S. military training missions, joint exercises, military aid operations in many different countries, most ruled by repressive regimes... sound like the Middle East? The Arabian Peninsula? Think again. The indispensable Nick Turse introduces us to the rapidly expanding American military footprint in Africa. It is astounding how few other journalists have paid attention to this highly important story."
Adam Hochschild, author of To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 and King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa
"A dogged and intrepid journalist who won't take 'no comment' for an answer, Nick Turse has done a fantastic job of exposing the U.S. military's expansion into Africa and the proliferation of its secret missions on the continent."
Craig Whitlock, Pentagon correspondent, Washington Post
"Tomorrow's Battlefield is an urgently needed resource for all those seeking ways to end military intervention in Africa."
Lee Sustar, Socialist Worker
"Gripping and meticulous, Nick Turse’s reporting on Africa sheds much-needed light on shadowy missions the U.S. military would rather keep secret. His investigations of U.S. military missions in Africa in Tomorrow’s Battlefield reveal a secret war with grave implications for Africans and Americans, alike.
―Glenn Greenwald
"Nick Turse’s investigative reporting has revealed a remarkable picture of evolving US military operations in Africa that have been concealed from view, but have ominous portent, as he demonstrates vividly and in depth.”
―Noam Chomsky
"In the first book length account of AFRICOM’s operations, Nick Turse chronicles how in a very short time, Africa went from the margins of US foreign policy―to be not just the warzone of tomorrow, but of today."
―Sean Jacobs, international affairs faculty at The New School and founder of Africa is a Country
"U.S. military training missions, joint exercises, military aid operations in many different countries, most ruled by repressive regimes... sound like the Middle East? The Arabian Peninsula? Think again. The indispensable Nick Turse introduces us to the rapidly expanding American military footprint in Africa. It is astounding how few other journalists have paid attention to this highly important story."
―Adam Hochschild, author of To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 and King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa
"A dogged and intrepid journalist who won't take 'no comment' for an answer, Nick Turse has done a fantastic job of exposing the U.S. military's expansion into Africa and the proliferation of its secret missions on the continent."
―Craig Whitlock, Pentagon correspondent, Washington Post
"Tomorrow's Battlefield is an urgently needed resource for all those seeking ways to end military intervention in Africa."
―Lee Sustar, Socialist Worker
―Glenn Greenwald
"Nick Turse’s investigative reporting has revealed a remarkable picture of evolving US military operations in Africa that have been concealed from view, but have ominous portent, as he demonstrates vividly and in depth.”
―Noam Chomsky
"In the first book length account of AFRICOM’s operations, Nick Turse chronicles how in a very short time, Africa went from the margins of US foreign policy―to be not just the warzone of tomorrow, but of today."
―Sean Jacobs, international affairs faculty at The New School and founder of Africa is a Country
"U.S. military training missions, joint exercises, military aid operations in many different countries, most ruled by repressive regimes... sound like the Middle East? The Arabian Peninsula? Think again. The indispensable Nick Turse introduces us to the rapidly expanding American military footprint in Africa. It is astounding how few other journalists have paid attention to this highly important story."
―Adam Hochschild, author of To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 and King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa
"A dogged and intrepid journalist who won't take 'no comment' for an answer, Nick Turse has done a fantastic job of exposing the U.S. military's expansion into Africa and the proliferation of its secret missions on the continent."
―Craig Whitlock, Pentagon correspondent, Washington Post
"Tomorrow's Battlefield is an urgently needed resource for all those seeking ways to end military intervention in Africa."
―Lee Sustar, Socialist Worker
About the Author
Nick Turse, an award-winning journalist and historian, is the author/editor of several books including The Changing Face of Empire: Special Ops, Drones, Spies, Proxy Fighters, Secret Bases, and Cyberwarfare (Haymarket), is the managing editor of TomDispatch.com, and a fellow at the Nation Institute.
Product details
- ASIN : 1608464636
- Publisher : Haymarket Books (May 19, 2015)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 232 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9781608464630
- ISBN-13 : 978-1608464630
- Item Weight : 9.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.75 x 8 inches
-
Best Sellers Rank:
#980,062 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #561 in Canadian Politics
- #715 in Colonialism & Post-Colonialism
- #1,443 in African Politics
- Customer Reviews:
Customer reviews
4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
33 global ratings
How are ratings calculated?
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Top reviews
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Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2017
Verified Purchase
It's a cataloging, really, of what the USA has been doing for the past decade to ready itself for a global conflict in Africa. Much bigger, I think, than most Americans ever realized was going on.
6 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2020
Verified Purchase
I agree with others' assessment of the book's content: informative, but repetitive and formulaic.
Also, (and this is unrelated to the content), the book itself has been lazily compiled from the constituent articles very lazily. One of the addendums notes that the online articles "bristle" with links to source material (and I'm sure they do), but all this has been stripped out of the book and there's no works cited. The book includes slides from military PowerPoints, but at a size which makes the text essentially unreadable. Finally, would including a map of Africa in the text have been too much to ask for? I would really have appreciated one. This book was clearly published as an afterthought
Also, (and this is unrelated to the content), the book itself has been lazily compiled from the constituent articles very lazily. One of the addendums notes that the online articles "bristle" with links to source material (and I'm sure they do), but all this has been stripped out of the book and there's no works cited. The book includes slides from military PowerPoints, but at a size which makes the text essentially unreadable. Finally, would including a map of Africa in the text have been too much to ask for? I would really have appreciated one. This book was clearly published as an afterthought
One person found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2017
Verified Purchase
Repetitive in its format but probably necessarily so. Ditto for often arid prose style. Highly informative, however.
3 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2020
Verified Purchase
Like new / Never been read
Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2016
Verified Purchase
Turse's usual excellent digging and reporting. Timely.
4 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2015
Verified Purchase
Tomorrows Battlefield is the winner of the 2015 American Book award Dr, Turse is sheading light on an important subject too long ignored by the American News Media. A valuable easy to read and understand discussion of what the Government of The US is doing in our name on what they hope to keep the DARK CONTENENT.
I'm looking forward to Dr. Turse's next book.
I'm looking forward to Dr. Turse's next book.
7 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2015
Verified Purchase
The book is more of a listing than an actual book. Lists of military bases. Lists of weapons. He piles up circumstantial evidence which I'm sure is overwhelmingly correct in the fact that we are doing something in Africa. But what? There is no narrative to speak of and the author was unable to get any information from the stonewalling pentagon. Not surprising, but I expected more of an insider book, and a better written one. It reads like a computer manual.
34 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2016
In “Tomorrow’s Battlefield” Nick Turse combines a number of his own articles highlighting his research into what AFRICOM and Special Forces Command Africa (SOCAF) are doing on the African continent. The consistent refrain in every account is that AFRICOM is purposely hiding its true efforts and footprint while engaging in operations that create, instead of solve, security challenges. Despite the redundant theme in each chapter, Nick Turse did get me thinking.
It is very tempting to make two foundational errors when writing about Africa. One, underestimating the sovereignty of African nations and belittling their capability. Two, overestimating US military capability and impact. It makes complete sense that if the US has only a small military footprint of 5000 or so on the African continent, executing mainly training, advising and exercise activities, that many of Africa's shared security problems would probably not disappear.
The above errors highlight one additional misconception about the African environment. Just as the American presence in African countries comes through invitation, so also, Africa invites many other countries to invest in Africa's military capacity to include: France, England, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany, Canada, Turkey, Jordan, Israel, China, India and many others. This doesn't include the inter-African military partnerships across the continent, mainly from stronger players like Egypt, Morocco, Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa.
If Africa is "Today's Battlefield" than the responsibility and collaboration must include more than US involvement.
It is not only unfair but also disrespectful to Africa's sovereign nations and pride to insinuate that the United States is or even intends be the cure to Africa's security challenges. Many journalists write as if Africa is a collection of non-sovereign regions, helpless in the face of violence, given no credit even for their successes. The narratives, whether on China, France, U.S. or India are all one sided. Most African countries do have initiatives and should be given credit for choosing their military and economic relations.
For those who draw direct lines between conflict and foreign assistance, I often wonder how long they have been looking at the continent. West Africa alone has experienced 46+ coups and over 80 attempted coups since 1960. If anything, US professional training has lessened and not increased coups. The small footprint is not perfect, nor can it or should it prevent all security problems. In addition, consistent engagements should not be considered a negative; they are actually a mark of strong relationships. Popular movements for government change instead of coups are on the rise; especially in places of strong US partnership to include: Senegal and Burkina Faso.
Speaking of ownership, could it not be considered offensive in the eyes of the Chadian, nascent Somali, Kenyan, Cameroonian or Nigerien armies to be called “proxies”? When African countries are trained to address their own security threats, how does that make them proxies? Nick Turse frequently mentions “blowback”. While a cut-and-paste method of journalism from Afghanistan onto Mali or Somalia may be a tempting strategy, it completely misses the cultural, historical and religious nuances of Africa’s environment. What is the difference between blowback and becoming a target yourself due to honest military effort against a common enemy?
Turse indirectly identifies and simultaneously over generalizes challenges to Africa's insecurity. For the former, it is evident that more coordination and shared strategies are necessary between all the military efforts in Africa. As important as a military exercise can be, even across multiple countries, it is barely a drop in the bucket to what creates a cohesive and effective fighting coalition. In development, a project must be sustainable. Military training has the same requirement. If anything, maintaining a consistent engagement using the same unit is the BEST way to produce an effective fighting force.
For the latter challenge, not only does Turse over generalize the "African" threats, he also misses significant inter-cultural requirements. For someone who frequents dozens of African countries and speaks the five main languages associated with its populations, it is vexing for me to find so many journalists assigning Africa to one enduring security nightmare. With few exceptions, African countries want long-term engagements and partnerships with people that respect their culture and environment. AFRICOM and SOCAF try hard to meet that request. This leads me to a final point where everyone could do better.
Respecting your African partner means learning their language and studying their history and social dynamics. Like most sectors of American society, the military could always do better at honing their language skills, specific to each African context. And to remind would-be critics, that is why a consistent face and long-term interaction makes more sense. Africans prefer the effort and any outside partner would rather not have to learn a different language every two months to engage with a different African partner.
As a final thinking point, Turse laments the same issue that most military, Special Forces included, do as well. It's hard to quantify success outside of kills, captures and operations executed. How do you quantify quality training or assistance that keeps the peace in a country (Senegal, Burkina Faso) or limits what could have been worse than it was (Morocco, Mali, Niger, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania)? How do you quantify a partnership and professional friendships that are rarely news worthy but describe the majority of AFRICOM efforts? It’s always easier to nit-pick at the apparent failures.
I’m not sure why some people want the United States to be Africa's headline news. Africa deserves to be headline news on its own continent, especially for the gains and wins. Special Forces should know that more than anyone. That's what it means to be "quiet professionals" and that’s probably why Nick Turse has a hard time giving Special Forces the credit that their African partners actually deserve.
It is very tempting to make two foundational errors when writing about Africa. One, underestimating the sovereignty of African nations and belittling their capability. Two, overestimating US military capability and impact. It makes complete sense that if the US has only a small military footprint of 5000 or so on the African continent, executing mainly training, advising and exercise activities, that many of Africa's shared security problems would probably not disappear.
The above errors highlight one additional misconception about the African environment. Just as the American presence in African countries comes through invitation, so also, Africa invites many other countries to invest in Africa's military capacity to include: France, England, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany, Canada, Turkey, Jordan, Israel, China, India and many others. This doesn't include the inter-African military partnerships across the continent, mainly from stronger players like Egypt, Morocco, Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa.
If Africa is "Today's Battlefield" than the responsibility and collaboration must include more than US involvement.
It is not only unfair but also disrespectful to Africa's sovereign nations and pride to insinuate that the United States is or even intends be the cure to Africa's security challenges. Many journalists write as if Africa is a collection of non-sovereign regions, helpless in the face of violence, given no credit even for their successes. The narratives, whether on China, France, U.S. or India are all one sided. Most African countries do have initiatives and should be given credit for choosing their military and economic relations.
For those who draw direct lines between conflict and foreign assistance, I often wonder how long they have been looking at the continent. West Africa alone has experienced 46+ coups and over 80 attempted coups since 1960. If anything, US professional training has lessened and not increased coups. The small footprint is not perfect, nor can it or should it prevent all security problems. In addition, consistent engagements should not be considered a negative; they are actually a mark of strong relationships. Popular movements for government change instead of coups are on the rise; especially in places of strong US partnership to include: Senegal and Burkina Faso.
Speaking of ownership, could it not be considered offensive in the eyes of the Chadian, nascent Somali, Kenyan, Cameroonian or Nigerien armies to be called “proxies”? When African countries are trained to address their own security threats, how does that make them proxies? Nick Turse frequently mentions “blowback”. While a cut-and-paste method of journalism from Afghanistan onto Mali or Somalia may be a tempting strategy, it completely misses the cultural, historical and religious nuances of Africa’s environment. What is the difference between blowback and becoming a target yourself due to honest military effort against a common enemy?
Turse indirectly identifies and simultaneously over generalizes challenges to Africa's insecurity. For the former, it is evident that more coordination and shared strategies are necessary between all the military efforts in Africa. As important as a military exercise can be, even across multiple countries, it is barely a drop in the bucket to what creates a cohesive and effective fighting coalition. In development, a project must be sustainable. Military training has the same requirement. If anything, maintaining a consistent engagement using the same unit is the BEST way to produce an effective fighting force.
For the latter challenge, not only does Turse over generalize the "African" threats, he also misses significant inter-cultural requirements. For someone who frequents dozens of African countries and speaks the five main languages associated with its populations, it is vexing for me to find so many journalists assigning Africa to one enduring security nightmare. With few exceptions, African countries want long-term engagements and partnerships with people that respect their culture and environment. AFRICOM and SOCAF try hard to meet that request. This leads me to a final point where everyone could do better.
Respecting your African partner means learning their language and studying their history and social dynamics. Like most sectors of American society, the military could always do better at honing their language skills, specific to each African context. And to remind would-be critics, that is why a consistent face and long-term interaction makes more sense. Africans prefer the effort and any outside partner would rather not have to learn a different language every two months to engage with a different African partner.
As a final thinking point, Turse laments the same issue that most military, Special Forces included, do as well. It's hard to quantify success outside of kills, captures and operations executed. How do you quantify quality training or assistance that keeps the peace in a country (Senegal, Burkina Faso) or limits what could have been worse than it was (Morocco, Mali, Niger, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania)? How do you quantify a partnership and professional friendships that are rarely news worthy but describe the majority of AFRICOM efforts? It’s always easier to nit-pick at the apparent failures.
I’m not sure why some people want the United States to be Africa's headline news. Africa deserves to be headline news on its own continent, especially for the gains and wins. Special Forces should know that more than anyone. That's what it means to be "quiet professionals" and that’s probably why Nick Turse has a hard time giving Special Forces the credit that their African partners actually deserve.
15 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries
Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2019Verified Purchase
Interesting read and provides a spin on modern political and military understanding that very few people read into. Well written and informative
Jorge
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very informative
Reviewed in Spain on February 12, 2018Verified Purchase
Very informative book about the secret war that the USA is fighting in Africa. I think it is the perfect example of the upcoming future wars that the Western world is forced to fight around the world. It's extremely well-researched and Nick Turse does an excellent job of backing up all his analyses and sources.
I really recommend it if you are interested in learning more about the future of war.
I really recommend it if you are interested in learning more about the future of war.






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