I'm from the government and I'm here to help: humanitarian assistance in West Africa.

The U.S. military's AFRICOM Combatant Command (COCOM) has a mission to strengthen democratic institutions, spur economic growth, trade, and investment, advance peace and security, and promote opportunity and development throughout Africa. In order to accomplish these objectives in the West Africa region, AFRICOM has selected to employ a strategy that focuses on Security Force Assistance programs and military exercises. While regional security is extremely important to stability, it is ultimately an enabler of other types of operations that are designed to increase the prosperity of the people of the region and strengthen diplomatic, economic, and military ties between the U.S. and states in the West Africa region. This thesis explores the potential for AFRICOM to adopt a new strategy with additional emphasis on the U.S. military working with other organizations provide humanitarian assistance and drive social change in the region, the existence of R2P situations, the ethics and morality of responding to them, and the strategy's validity and effectiveness compared to the current plan.