War in the Sahel

This is the second of two volumes on the GWOT. It covers the ‘second half’ of the GWOT in North Africa, from France’s military intervention in Mali in 2013 to the present (2026). Its four parts cover: the US’ failed attempt to establish an Al Qaeda-FARC global network; the diminished US presence and the failure of France’s military intervention; the emergence of the ‘coup bloc’ (Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger); and the Russification of the Sahel (2021 - ). The 21 chapters analyse: the tragedy that has unfolded across Sahelian Africa as ‘jihadists’, backed by Algeria’s secret services, have increased their hold on the region; why France’s military intervention failed; why jihadists were able to recruit so easily; the circumstances whereby 25,000 civilians have been killed and some two million have been displaced; and why Russian-aligned military juntas have replaced democratically elected governments.

The irony for those US ideologues who planned for a New American Century and then exerted almost unchallenged influence in the George W. Bush administration that took power on 20 January 2001, is that their key strategy in the wake of 9/11 to fulfil the aims of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), namely the GWOT, has led to the precise opposite outcome. Far from enabling the USA to gain the “global leadership” that the PNAC envisaged, the GWOT, at least in Africa, has instead resulted in: the creation of the world’s ‘terrorism hotspot’; widespread death, suffering and destruction; and the withdrawal of America from much of the Continent, thereby enabling Vladimir Putin’s Russia to step into its shoes.