AFRICAN MINERALS AND AMERICAN POLICY

Abstract

Abstract : Major A. D. Ackels is presently a student at the US Army Command and General Staff College. He holds a bachelor's degree in History and Political Science from the University of Minnesota and a master's degree in Comparative Politics from Georgetown University. Major Ackels entered the Army in 1965 and has since served in a variety of command and staff positions, including overseas tours in Japan and Vietnam. In 1972, he joined the Foreign Area Officer program as a specialist in Sub~Saharan Africa. Since then he has served in Ethiopia and has travelled in 14 other African nations. Field research for this article was done in Addis Ababa, at the headquarters of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, and in Washington, D.C., while Major Ackels was serving as an African Analyst in the Capabilities and Readiness Division of the Army's Intelligence and Security Command. In attempting to demonstrate the importance of Africa as a potential source of raw materials, this study focuses on eight metals: aluminum (bauxite), chromium, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, platinum, and uranium. These minerals were selected because they are found in commercially exploitable quantities in Sub-Saharan Africa, because they have a variety of applications in American industry, because they represent metals for which there are at present no generally suitable substitutes, or because they represent important underused deposits of metals widely recognized to be essential to all industrialized nations.