Responding to Potential Transitions: A New Dataset With a Discussion of Response Dilemmas in Mali and Syria (original) (raw)

PISM Strategic Files, 2012

After yet another Tuareg rebellion, followed by a virtual takeover of the northern parts of the country by various terrorist organisations and a highly destabilising coup d'état, Mali finds itself engulfed in a protracted political, security and humanitarian crisis. The worrying series of events in Mali has brought the country to the attention of international actors, including the European Union (EU), which is concerned about the lack of stability and security in the Sahel, an area adjacent to the immediate EU neighbourhood. Unfortunately, the majority of the foreign ideas on how to address Mali's crisis lack an enduring commitment to improve the situation on the ground. Unless the international proposals are in line with the UN Secretary General's recommendations from 29 November 2012 and veer towards long-term solutions, Mali is likely to remain destabilised for the foreseeable future.

Mali: this is only the beginning

Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, 2013

Finally, the situation in Mali was rotten enough for international intervention. First because the mujahideen of Ansar Dine, the Movement for Tawhid and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA), along with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), only had to exercise a little pressure at the front in Konna, to let the last remnants of the Malian Army fall apart.1 Second because the Malian Interim President, Dioncounda Traoré, installed after the coup d’état against President Amadou Toumani Touré of 22 March 2012, faced yet another coup d’état from this same decrepit army, set heavily against foreign intervention as it might upset its power within Mali, which led him to formally ask France for military support, believing he had nothing to lose.2 Undoubtedly, the French Ministry of Defense and French Military HQ État-Major des Armées had a plan ready despite President Hollande’s public assurances that France would not pursue a neocolonial intervention in a sovereign state. France has historically ...

War at the Background of Europe: The Crisis of Mali

AARMS Vol. 12, No. 2 (2013) 247–271. In 2012 the seemingly stable country of Mali experienced a sudden collapse, this along with the declaration of independence of the brand new Tuareg state, the massive spread of extreme Islamism shocked the international community. Initial disbelief gave way to the UN Security Council’s resolution to restore Mali’s territorial integrity. Fueled by the fear of a greater and bloodier conflict and its overspill, limited military operations began. Along with the Economic Community of West African State–led operation, the country’s former colonial master, France, began its own controversial military operation. Many people think that by doing so, France is trying to prove itself a great power and able to intervene on the world political stage according to its own diplomatic interest and being a force to contend with. Others however think that France is facing another Indochina-like fiasco in Mali. Who is right, will be determined by the failure or the success of the current operations and by the results of the restoration afterward. In this paper I would like to clarify the reasons for the events taking place in the country, their dynamics and possible consequences. keywords: Mali, AQIM, Boko Haram, Tuareg, Azawad, rebellion, France, USA, European Union, peacekeeping, Operation Serval,

MALI: REBUILDING A COUNTRY FROM CIVIL WAR

2018

Not for the very first time in its history, after the military coup and the rebellion in 2012, the situation of Mali has become uncertain. The country's position on the Fragile States Index1 has gone through a major increase from the 76th place in 2011 to the 38th in 2013, and the 29th in 2016 out of a total of 178 countries. However, it was neither the coup nor the rebellion of the tribes that generated a crisis. Mali as part of the countries of the Sahel region had to face numerous challenges and these led to the outbreak of the crisis in 2012. Different peacekeeping missions of the European Union and the United Nations needed to deal with the root causes in order to stabilise the country and to bring long-term peace.