VOLUME 4 ISSUE 1 NOVEMBER 2016​

Securitising the Desert: An Analysis of Counterterrorism Operations Impacts in New Theatres, Gaps, Shortcomings and Recommendations for Change

Aneliese Bernard
Growing extremism and insecurity in the Sahel has shifted global security interests towards the region, where international efforts to mitigate the propensity for weak states to collapse are the core focus for intervention. This new class of interventionism, defined here as soft counterterrorism, where gaps in governance in hostile territories are often seen to serve as terrorist havens, is quickly shaping the agendas of foreign interventions in the region and elsewhere. Through mixed-methodological research, this paper conducts a cross-sectorial analysis of how counterterrorism and security sector reforms in the Sahel have failed to sustainably strengthen Sahelian states by centralising government resources, instead of efficiently allocating them to needs-based communities, in order to bolster these vulnerable groups against poverty and extremism. Simultaneously, many of these reforms, through attempts at strengthening borders and local militaries, have ostensibly created more vulnerability for marginalised populations, whose livelihoods are linked to the ability to freely move across the region without legal and political restraint.