Securing Tomorrow: New Directions in African Defense Policy

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 ...

The big question for Africans on safeguarding peace and security is whether the Pan-African organization, which aspires to lead the continent towards peace and prosperity and to which the continent’s predisposed human and material resource potential, is able to ensure the fulfillment of these ambitions through its own institutions? In other words, can the African Union manage African crises with independent African means? This fundamental question calls for other more intermediate ...

During the last quarter of 2016, terrorism specialists were still busy with the issues of counter-radicalization, indoctrination, and the dangers of young recruits departing to tension hotbeds, when the question arose about the return to their countries of origin by those who have experienced war and acquired significant combat capabilities. For nearly the past decade, they have been flocking to Syria and Iraq from around the world. ...

Multiple players that destabilize the countries in the region characterize the terrorist landscape in the Sahel. Despite the fact that each terrorist group has particular areas of action and zones of influence, nevertheless two main ideological tendencies confront each other in the Sahel: on one hand, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and on the other, the Islamic State (IS) organization (also known as Daesh). However, some groups continue to act independently of the allegiances they ...

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 première 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 premier volume des Dialogues Stratégiques est co ...

La réunion des chefs d’État et de gouvernement des pays de l’OTAN à Varsovie constitue une étape importante de la transformation structurelle et fonctionnelle de l’Alliance atlantique et de l’OTAN. Le Communiqué final et les trois déclarations confirment le retour progressif à l’endiguement, à travers le renforcement de la dissuasion et la défense de l’Alliance, et la mise à distance de la menace asymétrique et hybride. Cette dynamique contribue à la centralité de la défense collect ...

This policy brief reviews the recently published EU Global Strategy, highlighting its main strengths and weaknesses as well as innovations, starting with the concept of resilience. It argues that the document has many strengths for being a compromise text written at a time of deep uncertainty about the EU's own future. The brief also comments on the future of EU-Morocco relations in the new framework. It notes that the strategy perhaps missed an opportunity to reaffirm European-Moro ...