Militantism and the changing regional security in the Maghreb-Sahel region
The collapse of domestic order in Libya after the fall of Gaddafi's regime in 2011 has brought previously well contained security threats endogenous to the Sahel into direct contact with regional powers in the Maghreb - and thereby brought them to the attention of European great powers.
On 13 April, DIIS Senior Researcher Rasmus Alenius Boserup elaborated on the root causes and consequences of these new dynamics atthe annual Sahel-Maghreb conference at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC.
In his presentation, Boserup argued that the broader regional security architecture linking the Maghreb and the Sahel together is in a process of rapid change. It is not enough today to simply acknowledge that the Sahel region which traditionally was treated as an buffer zone between Northwest and East Africa over the past decade de-facto has acquired a status resembling a regional security complex.
The increasing interaction between non-state actors in the Sahel and the Maghreb have pushed several Maghreb great powers to perceive the Sahel as one key security challenge thereby de facto binding the two security complexes together in new ways that may ultimately influence European security perceptions and policies.
