Securing Tomorrow: New Directions in African Defense Policy

S’adressant à l’Occident en 1989, Alexandre Arbatov, conseiller diplomatique de Mikhaïl Gorbatchev avait dit : "nous allons vous rendre le pire des services, nous allons vous priver d'ennemi ". Ce que le russe n’avait pas prévu à ce moment, c’est que la disparition de l’Union Soviétique allait priver l’occident de bien plus que d’un ennemi : elle allait le priver de son identité. Durant la guerre froide, il existait un camp de l’Est et un camp de l’Ouest. Cet antagonisme donnait à ...

This Policy Brief highlights the depths of the Sahel crisis. Some aspects of the crisis, such as extremist violence, migration, transnational crime and precariousness, are in fact symptoms of a disease that will only get worse if the real and deep causes are not addressed. Exploring the case of the G5 Sahel as a framework for the convenience of study and analysis does not imply that the crisis is limited to the five countries that are part of the G5 Sahel. Indeed, while specificitie ...

The current economic, political and geo-strategic dynamics, centered on the major regional groups, announce a reconfiguration of the international order in which Africa is called to play an important role through its main continental institution which is the Union African Union (AU). The AU is increasingly emerging as the continent's platform with foreign partners, and continues to face problems of dependence, governance and leadership. Therefore, in a critical and forward-looking a ...

The African Peace and Security Annual Conference (APSACO), organized by the OCP Policy Center, was held from July 10 – 11, 2017 in Rabat. This first edition, focusing on the African Union’s (AU) strategic autonomy, aimed to facilitate a serious and constructive consideration of the various probable and realistic options for the rise of this international organization as an autonomous entity that is globally interdependent. The conference also aimed at launching a deep African debate ...

Ce Policy Brief traite de l’articulation entre le développement et la sécurité dans le bassin méditerranéen, ainsi que de l’implication des pays des deux rives, nord et sud, dans un partenariat assurant la sécurité nécessaire à un développement socio-économique conjoint. Les pays du Sahel prennent également part à l’analyse et conditionnent le succès des stratégies sécuritaires au Maghreb et au sein de l’Union Européenne. Le papier revient sur des exemples de pays riches mais frappé ...

The United States and Europe share a common interest in addressing the growing terrorist threats from North Africa. The emergence of ISIL as a force in the region — notably in Libya, but also in Egypt and to a lesser degree in Tunisia, Algeria, and Mali — is cause for genuine concern. The ISIL challenge is compounded by the persistence of older terrorist organizations, both local ones such as the region’s various Ansar al Sharias as well as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), al ...

The debate on defense is more relevant than ever in an evolving global context that is driven by the constant reconfiguration of geostrategic equilibriums and by the importance of the impacts of the economic and financial crisis on States’ budgets leading to pertinent questions such as: will defense policies be adapted to their future tasks? Will the military leaders’ strategists have sufficient means to effectively negotiate the adaptation process? In addition to the modernization ...

Cette publication conjointe entre HEC Center for Geopolitics et OCP Policy Center, compile douze Policy Papers qui ont été présentés, discutés et enrichis lors de la deuxième édition des Dialogues Stratégiques, une plateforme d’analyse et de débat stratégique autour des principaux enjeux géopolitiques et sécuritaires internationaux, mais également régionaux revêtant une importance capitale pour les continents européen et africain. Ce deuxième volume des Dialogues Stratégiques est co ...

While possible, prospects for repairing existing fractures through multilateral dialogue and compromise have become elusive as crises in the region persist. There are quite a few unfavorable conditions hindering the emergence of some form of multilateral security process: areas of hot conflict have widened in recent years making violence almost endemic in the region, in countries like Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya. The Middle East peace process is in a stalemate and already thin trus ...