GOVT 3423

The Trans-Sahara Anti-Terrorist Campaign: Chasing AQMI, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS in an African Desert

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2017-2018.

Since the events of September 11, 2001, the war on terrorism has been the focus of US foreign policy in Africa. This focus has led to major adjustments in US priorities in Africa, including the pairing of diplomacy, defense, and development into new forms of cooperation and intervention. One of the framework for the new approach is the Trans Sahara Counter Terrorism Partnership (TSCTP) under which the US has associated ten African countries in its global fight against terrorism. The TSCTP is predicated on the idea that significant areas of Africa, peopled as they are by weak states, could become a safe haven for terrorist groups linked with al-Qaeda, the Salafists, and other radical Islamic groups including ISIL today. This course explores the operations of the TSCTP and points of friction between the US and the populations of the zone of implementation. We will place special emphasis on African suspicions of some key tenets of the war on terrorism and skepticism of the methods adopted in the war on terrorism. Key among these are the principle of securing the primary of counterterrorism and the necessary institutional frictions that arise when considering development and good governance.

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