April 11-12, 2013
In recent years, a broad crisis of security and governance has traversed states in the Sahelian region of West Africa. In Mali, actions by Taureg fighters and Salafist militias, and a coup d’état in Bamako, fostered partition of the country followed by external intervention to salvage the state. In Northern Nigeria, a Salafist insurgency generally known as Boko Haram has staged a campaign of violence and destabilization, embroiling security forces and local communities. Several militias, among them Al Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM), are active in a broad area ranging from southern Algeria through Mauritania, southern Libya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and possibly Chad.
These security challenges are gathering momentum and scope in one of the poorest and most sparsely settled areas of Africa. The spaces of the Sahel are not “ungoverned,” though states have a great deal of difficulty projecting power throughout vast territories. Weak governance, social and political marginality, ineffectual state policies and the effects of climate change have all converged to pressure livelihoods and erode legitimacy in many of the Sahelian states. Steps toward democratization and political reform have yielded partial and sporadic inclusion, but not resilient or accountable electoral regimes. There is a range of political and developmental response across the region, including promising steps toward democratic development in Senegal, political failure and crisis in Mali, and emergency security responses amid dominant party rule in Nigeria.
This conference focuses on the issues of governance and development underlying the evolving security dilemmas in Sahelian states. Beyond the daily reporting of attacks, military efforts and peacekeeping initiatives, the rapidly deteriorating security landscape reflects problems of consolidating state authority, developing inclusive democratic structures, and improving economic prospects for changing populations. Separate panels will examine the political and economic foundations of conflict in northern Nigeria; problems of political recovery and regional accommodation in Mali; sources of contentious politics in other Sahelian states; and policy options for addressing issues of governance and development in the region. We are interested in demography and migration; climate and livelihoods; state-building and electoral rule; economic growth and prospects of structural change; communal bargaining and autonomy; security sector reform and conflict resolution.