Addressing Côte d’Ivoire’s Deeper Crisis
Legacies of Côte d’Ivoire’s national identity crisis left this strategic West African country vulnerable to further instability.
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Legacies of Côte d’Ivoire’s national identity crisis left this strategic West African country vulnerable to further instability.
Despite growing security concerns across the Sahel and Maghreb, regional security cooperation to address these transnational threats remains fragmented. Algeria is well-positioned to play a central role in defining this cooperation, but must first reconcile the complex domestic, regional, and international considerations that shape its decision-making.
Increasing narcotrafficking and a more active Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb are elevating concerns over instability in the Sahel. However, the region’s threats are more complex than what is observable on the surface. Rather, security concerns are typically characterized by multiple, competing, and fluctuating interests at the local, national, and regional levels. Effectively responding to these threats requires in-depth understanding of the multiple contextual layers in which illicit actors operate.
Navigating Nigeria's inter-communal fault lines will entail measures to mitigate ethno-religious conflict as well as realize constitutional reform.
Estimates are that more than half of all Africans will live in cities by 2025. This rapid pace of urbanization is creating a new locus of fragility in many African states—as evidenced by the burgeoning slums around many of the continent’s urban areas—and the accompanying rise in violence, organized crime, and the potential for instability. These evolving threats, in turn, have profound implications for Africa’s security sector.
Counterterrorism efforts among Sahelian governments remain uncoordinated and too narrowly focused to contain and confront AQIM’s long-term and sophisticated strategy in the region. To prevent AQIM from further consolidating its presence in the Sahel, regional policies must be harmonized and security forces refocused so as to minimize collateral impacts on local communities.
A growing number of Africa’s security challenges—narcotics trafficking, piracy, illegal fishing, and armed robberies, among others—take place at sea. Illicit actors exploit Africa’s maritime space given its expansiveness and the limited number of vessels African governments can field to interdict this activity. Technology can dramatically improve Africa’s maritime security coverage. However, to do so will require engaging Africa’s scientists who can guide and sustain these efforts. This will yield not only security but environmental and meteorological benefits for the continent.
Download this Security Brief as a PDF: English | Français | Português Africa is facing an increasingly menacing threat of cocaine trafficking that risks undermining its security structures, nascent democratic institutions, and development progress. Latin America has long faced similar challenges and its experience provides important lessons that can be applied before this expanding threat... Continue Reading
(See more recent readings on this topic here.) Beyond Internal Conflict: The Emergent Practice of Climate Security By Joshua W Busby, Journal of Peace Research, December 28, 2020 Challenges to climate-related security include but are not limited to resource competition, shocks to food security, climate-induced migration, transboundary water management, and unintended consequences from climate policies.... Continue Reading
This program explores the TOC-security-governance nexus to generate strategic recommendations that can be practically implemented by participants and their peers within African institutions.
(See more recent readings on this topic here.) Securing Legitimate Stability in the DRC: External Assumptions and Local Perspectives By Jaïr van der Lijn, Tim Glawion, and Nikki de Zwaan, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, September 30, 2019 Surveys and interviews conducted in South Kivu examine the roles of the Armed Forces of the DRC... Continue Reading
(See more recent readings on this topic here.) Corruption and State-Corporate Crime in Fisheries By Andre Standing, Chr. Michelson Institute, July 31, 2015 In the early 2000s in Senegal, 75 percent of animal protein consumed comes from marine fisheries. Yet Russian, European, and Asian firms are increasingly overfishing in the country’s territory and threatening the... Continue Reading