Officially activated on 1 October 2008, US Africa Command (AFRICOM) is first and foremost an internal consolidation and reorganization of Defense Department personnel. Its primary mission is to help Africans address their security challenges. AFRICOMdiffers from other Defense Department organizations by focusing primarily on activities that contribute not to warfighting, but war prevention. Even so, it has struggled with controversy since its inception. The views of key constituencies range from lukewarm acceptance to outright hostility. The central lesson from this research is that the views of foreign audiences toward American foreign policies have a direct impact on the success of those policies. One of its most difficult tasks will be convincing key audiences–African governments and militaries, NGOs, international media, and not least other US government agencies and the Congress–that the effort and funding put into this command were worthwhile and should continue. Confusion still remains over exactly what AFRICOM is and what it wants to do. Sorting this out will require consulting, listening, and learning. Its leaders must develop and lead a new type of organization that runs counter to traditional instincts of senior personnel in the Department of Defense who continue to resist the notion of interagency coordination. In sum, we remain hopeful that the past need not predict the future of American policies in Africa. © 2009, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.