The Growing Threat of Violent Extremism in Coastal West Africa
Sahelian militant Islamist groups are threatening border areas of littoral states where grievances held by pastoralist communities may provide an entry point for extremist interests.
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Sahelian militant Islamist groups are threatening border areas of littoral states where grievances held by pastoralist communities may provide an entry point for extremist interests.
This public roundtable assessed the range of climate-related security pressures on the continent and the importance of incorporating environmental security into African security policy.
This webinar series provides analysis of border security and governance challenges that African states are facing across the continent in multiple criminal markets, and offers insight into the multi-sectoral responses that security sector leaders are part of mounting to build community resilience to such challenges.
The recent rise in coups in Africa reflects a waning regional and international willingness to enforce anti-coup norms. Reversing the trend requires incentivizing democracy and consistently imposing real costs on coup makers.
Escalating attacks on communities in North West Nigeria by criminal gangs, including mass kidnappings of school children, exploit the limited security sector presence in the region.
Arms embargoes can be effective but require regional and international buy-in, adequate monitoring, and the imposition of sufficient costs on actors who evade the sanctions.
Global warming is contributing to more and extended heat waves, a tripling of droughts, a quadrupling of storms, and a tenfold increase in flooding in Africa since the 1970s—exacerbating security threats on the continent.
Tunisia is facing a constitutional crisis rooted in challenges to the separation of powers and the reach of executive authority. The outcome has implications not only for Tunisia but prospects for democracy across North Africa.
The rise of farmer-herder violence in Africa is more pernicious than fatality figures alone since it is often amplified by the emotionally potent issues of ethnicity, religion, culture, and land.
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 upended migration patterns in sub-Saharan Africa. It exposed how out of sync public health policy is with the realities of migration and mobility on the continent. Border closures, which stemmed the early spread of the virus, stranded large numbers of migrants and shut down the supply of essential goods and services. This, in turn, added to the crisis affecting both human security and the broader pandemic response. To prepare for future health emergencies, policy must consider the realities of a region with porous borders, under-resourced healthcare and migration management systems, and limited safety nets for people.
The Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS) will conduct a four-week virtual academic program on leadership in times of uncertainty, unexpected security threats, and exogenous challenges, such as pandemics.
While Russia’s engagements in Africa are often viewed as opportunistic, in the space of a few years Moscow has been able to gain a foothold in the southern Mediterranean, become a powerbroker in geographically strategic countries, and undermine democratic norms on the continent.