Defence Research Network: Problematic quick fixes for Africa’s (Counter)Insurgencies

Sorina Toltica‘s new blog post for the Defence Research Network discusses the challenges of countering today’s insurgencies in Mali, Sahel and other regions of the African continent. It argues that complex conflicts require more than just strong borders, and careful consideration needs to be given in the future to the way that both military and development solutions contribute to both short- and long-term local dynamics.

Read the blog post on the Defence Research Network’s website.

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This month’s newsletter on counterinsurgency can be accessed here.

The Defence Research Network is an interdisciplinary network of Masters, PhD and Early Career Researchers focused on defence, security and military topics in relation to policy, strategy, history, culture and society. 

 

 

Update on Security

Western Sahel: the push for counter-insurgency results is fuelling attacks on civilians, according to a new report

After eight years of conflict in the Sahel, the international community remains primarily focused on the two main jihadi militant groups driving the sub-regional insurgency in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger: the Al Qaeda-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS). The reality on the ground is far more complex.

ACLED

As Chad’s Problems Mount, What Role for Civil Society?

With its people increasingly frustrated by elite impunity, civil society organisations are seeking to mobilise into a coherent protest movement.

ACLED

Burkina Faso: Thinking Security Out of Informality

Oswald Padonou argues that the introduction of military service or a national civic service could help address the growing problem of insecurity in Burkina Faso.