Securitizing the Sahel: Analysing External Interventions and their Consequences
In
The Sahel has become a focal point of international security interventions, with external actors providing extensive security force assistance (SFA) to local military, police, and paramilitary forces. Securitizing the Sahel: Analysing External Interventions and Their Consequences critically examines the rationale, implementation, and consequences of these efforts (2012–2024). With unique access to both military operations and strategy-making in European capitals, the author provides an innovative methodological approach, exclusive material, and a comprehensive perspective. Drawing on extensive fieldwork—including participant observation of military operations and over 100 interviews with policymakers, military personnel, and security practitioners across the Sahel and Europe—this book offers an unprecedented analysis of how SFA has shaped local security dynamics and broader geopolitical competition. Securitizing the Sahel provides both theoretical and empirical contributions to understanding SFA in fragile states. It challenges prevailing frameworks, provides critical insights for policymakers, and highlights the unintended consequences of militarized external assistance in the Sahel and beyond.
Published by Oxford University Press. This book can be purchased on the publisher’s website or on Amazon.
Free access until 10 November 2025 to the Introductory chapter.
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