Insurgency, Counterinsurgency, and Regional Insecurity in the African Sahel

abstract: This article places the problem of insurgency and counterinsurgency in the African Sahel region in a regional perspective to elucidate the interplay of local and external forces that have impacted present dynamics. The paper argues that the Sahel is not a unified Regional Security Complex but a space of overlapping security complexes, a factor that clearly complicates the security situation in the region, as well as the prospect of effective threats' securitization. Two related concentrics of political insurgencies in the contemporary Sahel region, the Malian axis and the Lake Chad Basin axis, are depicted and analyzed. The constellation of factors and actors underpinning and driving the insurgencies are examined.