June 20

• Africa: Mali - 3 New Briefings From African Affairs [analysis]

  The crisis in Mali has received considerable media attention, but due to the turnaround in academic publishing far less scholarly analysis is available. Read more »

May 30

• Mali: Militants' 'Sleeper Cell' in Mali Queried [analysis]

  When Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported late last month that Malian authorities had broken up an alleged cell of seven fighters from the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West... Read more »

May 14

• Mali: Which Way Forward? [interview]

  A little over a year ago, a few friends met to hang out online and talk about the political crisis in Mali (the text was published here and entitled 'Mali: How Bad Can it Get?').... Read more »

April 23

• Mali: Waiting for Blue Helmets? Prospects for a UN Mission [analysis]

  International actors have dealt with the crisis in Mali in many ways. In a recent brief, Lori-Anne Théroux-Bénoni (Institute of Security Studies Dakar) listed its... Read more »

April 18

• Mali: Chad Plays Politics Over Costly Mali Deployment [analysis]

  President Deby of Chad's announcement earlier this week that he was planning to withdraw his troops from northern Mali came as a surprise to many, but in the world of Chadian... Read more »

March 26

• Mali: One Year On ... Could They See the Coup Coming? [analysis]

  Last week marked the anniversary of the coup in Mali, when a group of soldiers, headed by Captain Amadou Sanogo, moved against President Amadou Toumani Touré. Much, to put... Read more »

March 13

• Mali: How Can U.S. Help Stabilize Mali's Political System? [analysis]

  Recent and still unconfirmed reports of the killings of top leaders of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb underscore tangible advances made by French and African forces in rolling... Read more »

February 04

• Mali: West Joins 'War on Terror' Again [analysis]

  A few weeks ago, most British journalists, politicians and foreign policy watchers would have had difficulty accurately positioning Mali on the map or naming its capital city... Read more »

January 22

• North Africa: Threat Al-Qaeda in Maghreb Poses to Europe 'Overstated' [analysis]

  Is Al-Qaeda about to bring terrorism to Europe's backyard in North Africa? Read more »

January 10

• Libya: Tripoli's Checkered History in Africa [analysis]

  In the flurry of assessments and debates about the 2011 war in Libya that overthrew the country’s longtime ruler, Muammar Gaddafi, there has been little scholarly or policy... Read more »

December 18, 2012

• Western Sahara: Dispute With Morocco Drags On [analysis]

  Following his most recent visit to Laayoune in November, the UN envoy for Western Sahara Christopher Ross said that "the conflict over the final status of the territory" has gone... Read more »

December 06, 2012

• Africa: The U.S. Pivots (Slightly) Toward Africa [analysis]

  There is an old saying, 'if you're a hammer, you will see everything else as a nail.' Today there is no bigger hammer in the world than the U.S. military, and in one of its newest... Read more »

October 19, 2012

• West Africa: Stopping West African Drug Trafficking [analysis]

  Everyone working on drugs in Africa should read Neil Carrier and Gernot Klantschnig’s short but insightful new book, Africa and the War on Drugs. Read more »

October 17, 2012

• Mali: Military Intervention Impossible, Until Now [analysis]

  Nobody seems to know what to do about Mali. In late September, the world's biggest tradeshow in global governance - the UN General Assembly - wound down having made no real... Read more »

September 26, 2012

• Mali: Nation's Cultural Riches Forgotten in Crisis [analysis]

  In all the depressing headlines about Mali becoming West Africa's 'new Afghanistan', or the frustrated editorials about the country's apparent political paralysis (the ICG's Gilles... Read more »

July 16, 2012

• West Africa: Crisis in the Sahel - After Mali What Next? [analysis]

  Over the last few years a crisis has been brewing in the whole of the Sahel, not only in Mali. All the ingredients for an explosion where there: poorly or ungoverned vast... Read more »

July 13, 2012

• Africa: Africa in the News - Kagame Denies Rwandan Involvement With M23

  Below is the weekly Africa news update available for memebers of the Royal African Society. To find out about getting Africa in the News delivered to your inbox every Friday click... Read more »

July 11, 2012

• Niger: President Issoufou's Crazy Neighborhood [analysis]

  Listening to Niger's President Mahamadou Issofou's recent interview on Al Jazeera one comes away with the impression that everything in Niger is fine except for the terrible things... Read more »

June 15, 2012

• Mali: North Faces Silent Crisis [analysis]

  While all eyes are on the ongoing political stalemate in Bamako, and the growing radicalism of groups such as Ansar Dine, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and MUJAO (Movement for... Read more »

June 01, 2012

• Mali: Junta-Ecowas Agreement Is Likely, Lowering Sanctions Risks [analysis]

  On 23 May, acting president Dioncounda Traore travelled to France for treatment of injuries sustained during demonstrations by pro-junta civilians and political parties two days... Read more »

April 26, 2012

• West Africa: Some Thoughts On West African Democracy [analysis]

  Over the two months, the state of West African democracy has been tested on several occasions. In Senegal, after second round elections, citizens elected a new president, their... Read more »

April 25, 2012

• Mali: Confronting 'Talibanization' - the Other Ansar Dine, Popular Islam, and Religious Tolerance [analysis]

  Of the insurgent factions that have wrested control over northern Mali from the central government, and effectively partitioned the country, Ansar Dine ("Defenders of the Faith")... Read more »

April 18, 2012

• Mali: Democracy, the Coup and the Anti-Globalization Left - Right Questions, Wrong Answers? [analysis]

  Over the weekend, Mali's political drama cut to Ouagadougou, where President Blaise Compaore hosted a meeting of Malian politicians and statesmen, the military junta that seized... Read more »

April 05, 2012

• Mali: How Bad Can It Get? - a Conversation With Isaie Dougnon, Bruce Hall, Baz Lecocq, Gregory Mann and Bruce Whitehouse [document]

  From dusk till late evening, you can find small groups of young people sitting on street corners, in front of houses, or in courtyards across West Africa. Read more »

April 02, 2012

• Mali: Hungry for Democracy - the Peasantry and the Coup [analysis]

  What does it mean when civil society groups like the Syndicate of Peasants of Mali announce their support for the military junta, and the National Committee for Recovering... Read more »