UN Peacekeeping with no Peace: Disorientation, Demoralization and Scarcity in Mali
The current model for international peacekeeping in Mali is unsustainable and unlikely to solve the many problems facing the country.
Read MoreThe current model for international peacekeeping in Mali is unsustainable and unlikely to solve the many problems facing the country.
Read MorePart three of three on the CSG’s Special Series from Senior Fellow David Law which provides a security sector perspective on the ongoing crisis in Mali and focuses on stabilization and security sector reform challenges to address in this context.
Read MorePart two of three on the CSG’s Special Series from Senior Fellow David Law which provides a security sector perspective on the ongoing crisis in Mali and focuses on stabilization and security sector reform challenges to address in this context.
Read MorePart one of three on the CSG’s Special Series from Senior Fellow David Law which provides a security sector perspective on the ongoing crisis in Mali and focuses on stabilization and security sector reform challenges to address in this context.
Read MoreThe Centre for Security Governance (CSG) is pleased to present a new three-part blog contribution from CSG Senior Fellow David Law which provides a security sector perspective on the ongoing crisis in Mali and focuses on stabilization and security sector reform challenges to address in this context.
Read MoreThis article analyzes the context of a potential Canadian contribution in Mali as part of our four-entry series on a Canadian return to peacekeeping.
Read MoreThis article summarizes the policy brief “Building the capacity of the Malian police: Why MINUSMA needs to think outside the box” by the Institute for Security Studies. This policy brief examines the police component of the MINUSMA and recommends how the capacity-building aspect of the peacekeeping mission can be strengthened. It also identifies the real challenges facing MINUSMA and pin points its shortcomings.
Read MoreIn July 2014, French President François Hollande launched Operation Barkhane; a counter-terrorism effort targeting terrorist groups in Sahel countries. This new mission is the continuation of Operation Serval launched in January 2013. This new operation shows continuity in France’s defence policy, as well as the country’s need to maintain its political influence in Africa by enhancing military operational capacities.
Read MoreMali faced a serious existential crisis in 2012. Its political institutions all but collapsed following a military coup, even as its sovereignty was under threat by a secessionist insurgency and Islamist military offensive. The French-led stability operation in 2013 may have prevented the country’s immediate collapse, but it did little to alter any of the structural realities that triggered this series of crises in the first place.
Read MoreAt the request of interim President Dioncounda Traoré, France led a military intervention to assist the Malian army and AFISMA in retaking Northern Mali. Since then, France has made significant gains and the fighting has subsided. At the national level, Malians have begun to implement a number of initiatives.
Read MoreIn the western Sahel, limited resources, institutional resistance, and little political will for security sector reform (SSR) exacerbates the threat of a regional conflict, as French and African military forces push Mali’s Islamist rebels into surrounding countries. This is particularly true of Niger, where SSR is a relatively unknown concept and where there has been a long history of violence with the same groups that destabilized Mali.
Read MoreThere are two rather over-used, if entirely accurate, rules in the UK Armed Forces. The first is von Moltke, the Elder’s maxim that “no plan ever survives contact with the enemy” (meaning be ready to adapt — and quickly — for every eventuality). The second is Dwight D Eisenhower’s observation that “plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” These basic principles are inculcated into every military officer again and again.
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