In Addis Ababa this week, the United States gathered with delegates from over forty African nations to articulate a vision where security, commerce, and infrastructure are not separate ambitions but a single, interwoven covenant. At the Africa Logistics and Communications Symposium — the largest event AFRICOM has co-hosted — American officials argued that lasting development cannot precede stability, nor can stability endure without economic dignity. The gathering raises an old and persistent question: whether the architecture of partnership, however carefully designed, outlasts the symposium