Feed aggregator

As the Parisian ban on self-service scooters enters into force on 1 September, the city hall calls the move revolutionary amid an urban jungle, while stakeholders remain divided on the pros and cons.

L’élaboration d’une politique européenne efficace à l’égard de la Chine est entravée par le fait que certains États membres sont trop dépendants du pays d’Asie de l’Est, estime la ministre néerlandaise du Commerce extérieur Liesje Schreinemacher.

FIFA-Präsident Gianni Infantino äussert sich erstmals zum Kuss-Skandal um Spaniens Verbandschef Luis Rubiales.

Bereits mit seinem Erstrundensieg gegen Yoshihito Nishioka schrieb Stan Warinka Geschichte, nun geht die Reise für den 38-Jährigen nach seinem Triumph über Tomas Martin Etcheverry noch weiter. Den Sieg feiert der Schweizer anschliessend ausgiebig mit dem Publikum.

An der Leichtathletikveranstaltung Diamond League im Zürcher Letzigrund-Stadion wurden am Donnerstagabend drei Mitglieder der Klimagruppe «Renovate Switzerland» daran gehindert, das Feld zu stürmen.

Vier Aktivisten haben am Donnerstagabend versucht, die Sportveranstaltung Diamond League im Zürcher Letzigrund-Stadion zu stören. Zahlreiche Sicherheitskräfte konnten die Störenfriede – unter ihnen auch der umstrittene Renovate-Sprecher Max Voegtli – schnell einfangen.

By Elias Yousif
WASHINGTON DC, Sep 1 2023 (IPS)

In what has become an all too familiar phenomenon, U.S.-trained security personnel have been implicated in the July 26th coup that deposed Niger’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum.

It is the fifth such putsch in the Sahel since 2020, and just the latest to, once again, upend Washington’s expansive counterterror operations in the region that seems to depend on questionable military partners.

As the Biden administration wrestles with how to respond, it should consider how this latest military takeover reflects on years of U.S. security cooperation in the Sahel and the efficacy of the approach that has defined U.S. engagement with the region.

Overview of U.S. Assistance to Niger and the Sahel

Over the last decade, U.S. security cooperation in the Sahel, and the western Sahel in particular, has grown substantially, reflecting widespread concern about the surge in Islamist militancy in the region.

A mix of armed groups, including those with affiliations with Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, have proliferated in the region over the years, carrying out opportunistic attacks, engaging in illicit economic activity, and posing acute challenges to state authority.

Elias Yousif

The United States has responded to perceived threats in the region by investing heavily in its own counterterror operations and security assistance programs, amounting to more than $3.3 billion in military aid to the Sahel over the last two decades.

Programs like the Trans-Sahara Partnership Initiative, Department of Defense building partner capacity programs, and numerous foreign military training operations have been central pillars of the U.S. approach to the region.

Despite being paired with significant amounts of economic and humanitarian assistance, they have anchored bilateral relations between Washington and its Sahelian partners.

Between FY2001 and FY2021, the United States provided the countries of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal at least $995 million in direct security assistance, a figure which likely excludes much of the aid provided through large but opaque Department of Defense capacity building programs.

And between FY2001 and FY2020, the United States provided training to at least 86 thousand trainees in these countries, including 17,643 from Niger.

Substantial Aid But Little Progress

Unfortunately, this assistance has not resulted in commensurate improvements in the security landscape or acted as an effective bulwark against civil-military strife. Whatever tactical advances U.S. assistance has contributed to, on the part of Sahelian security forces, the presence, activity, and power of sub-state armed groups has continued to grow.

Terrorism-related activity in the region has increased by more than 2,000 percent over the past decade and a half, while militant organizations have pursued increasingly bold operations and pseudo-state activities.

At the same time, U.S. security assistance activities have provided material support to military officers who have both engaged in grave human rights abuses or who have gone on to support the overthrow of civilian governments.

In just the last three years, the Sahel has seen five coups, two each in Mali and Burkina Faso and now one in Niger, each of which has involved or implicated officers that received U.S. military training.

Unsurprisingly, these military coups have reflected poorly on U.S. security assistance efforts and exposed severe shortcomings in Washington’s approach to the region.

Although it would be difficult to identify a causal relationship between U.S. training and coup propensity on the part of recipients, repeated putsches by U.S.-backed forces show a lack of discretion in how the United States selects its security partners.

Indeed, the behavior of many of these U.S.-trained forces is far from unpredictable, especially in places where military figures have long played outsized political roles.

More robust, in-depth, and multidisciplinary pre-assessments should better inform the selection of U.S. security assistance beneficiaries and partners, and policymakers should have the courage to use that information to decline invitations to engage in security cooperation when the risk is too high.

More broadly, the highly securitized nature of U.S. engagement with the region places significant emphasis on addressing the symptoms of insecurity and distracts from other lines of effort aimed at issues of governance, peacebuilding, and conflict resolution.

Moreover, the rhetorical and political emphasis Washington has placed on counterterrorism, in addition to overshadowing significant humanitarian and development investments, can also risk securitizing local politics and elevating the political saliency of military leaders over their civilian counterparts.

Indeed, in nearly all of the most recent coups, their military leaders have cited militancy and counterterror imperatives as justification for removing civilian leaders. Without a greater emphasis on governance, civil-military reforms, and defense institution building as a prerequisite to combat-oriented assistance, the United States risks perpetuating conflict and political instability.

Finally, when U.S.-backed security forces engage in coups or grave human rights violations, the United States should be unequivocal in its response. Too frequently, the United States has been willing to voice rhetorical condemnation while discreetly sustaining security cooperation activities.

Invoking the need to address terrorism or the infiltration of other competing powers in the region, the familiar turning of the United States’ blind eye in the Sahel has both undermined any meaningful commitment to conditionality in U.S. assistance and sent a troubling signal about the consequences of predatory behavior on the part of U.S. security partners.

The United States should re-orient its strategic calculus and right size how it weighs the risks of shedding abusive security partners against the risks of continuing to partner with forces undermining good governance and human rights.

Elias Yousif is a Research Analyst with the Stimson Center’s Conventional Defense Program. His research focuses on the global arms trade and arms control, issues related to remote warfare and use of force, and international security cooperation and child-soldiers prevention. Prior to joining the Stimson Center, Elias was the Deputy Director of the Security Assistance Monitor at the Center for International Policy where he analyzed the impact of U.S. arms transfer and security assistance programs on international security, U.S. foreign policy, and global human rights practices.

Source: Stimson Center

IPS UN Bureau

 

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');  

Tschechische Banken und die Prager Börse wurden von russischen Hackern ins Visier genommen. Die Angriffe richteten sich gegen die Websites der Banken oder Online-Banking-Dienste sowie gegen die Website der Börse. 

La Commission européenne a annoncé jeudi qu’elle prendrait contact avec les autorités belges pour obtenir des informations sur l’annonce faite par la secrétaire d’État à l’Asile et la Migration Nicole de Moor selon laquelle l’accueil des hommes seuls serait temporairement suspendu.

Greece's prime minister said on Thursday (31 August) it would launch drones and install forest temperature sensors to improve preventive firefighting after criticism from climate activists over a devastating wildfire burning for almost two weeks.

La Communauté économique des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (Cédéao) a démenti l'information diffusée par l'Agence France-Presse (AFP) selon laquelle le président de la Cédéao, le président nigérian Bola Tinubu, aurait proposé aux rebelles nigériens une période de transition de neuf mois.

"Un communiqué sur la soi-disant période de transition proposée par la Cédéao au Niger a attiré l'attention de la Commission de la Cédéao", a déclaré l'AFP. Le communiqué en français, qui aurait été publié par l'AFP, est faux et doit être traité comme une fausse nouvelle", a déclaré la Cédéao dans un communiqué publié sur le réseau social X (ex-Twitter).

"L'exigence du Conseil des chefs d'État et de gouvernement de la Cédéao est claire : les autorités militaires du Niger doivent immédiatement rétablir l'ordre constitutionnel en libérant et en rétablissant dans ses fonctions le président Mohamed Bazoum", souligne la déclaration.

Fin juillet, un groupe de militaires de la Garde présidentielle s'est mutiné au Niger et a annoncé la destitution de M. Bazoum. Le Conseil national pour la sauvegarde de la patrie, dirigé par le commandant de la Garde présidentielle Abdourahamane Tchiani, a été créé pour gouverner le pays. Les dirigeants de la Cédéao ont imposé de lourdes sanctions aux rebelles et ont exigé qu'ils libèrent M. Bazoum, menaçant de recourir à la force.

Die algerische Küstenwache soll zwei französische Touristen erschossen haben. Das berichten marokkanische Medien. Das Land schweigt bislang zu dem Vorfall.

In today's Capitals, Russian oil is fuelling a new political crisis in Bulgaria, the German Greens think they can subsidise the country's electricity prices, and so much more.

Germany’s implementation of the EU’s flagship cybersecurity legislation, NIS-2 will be fully integrated into national law by 17 October 2024. We caught up with Steven Heckler, Deputy Head of Department for Digitalisation and Innovation at BDI (Federal Association of German...

Die Europäische Kommission plant laut EU-Agrarkommissar Janusz Wojciechowski nicht, den Landwirten ein weiteres Jahr lang Ausnahmen von Umweltmaßnahmen zu gewähren. Die Lage am Getreidemarkt habe sich inzwischen verbessert.

The European Commission is not planning to allow farmers further exemptions on environmental measures for another year to boost cereal production, according to EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski, despite mounting pressure to do so from member states.

Niger's ruling junta has ordered police to expel France's ambassador, a move marking a further downturn in relations, and one that authorities in Paris said the army officers who seized power in Niamey last month had no authority to make.

Der Flughafen Zürich wird 75 Jahre alt – und das wird gefeiert. Einerseits mit einem grossen Flughafenfest, andererseits mit diesen schönen Bildern auf knappen drei Minuten.

Greek and Albanian foreign ministers traded statements on Thursday as the dispute over Fredi Beleri, an Albanian ethnic Greek mayor arrested on suspicion of vote buying and held in pre-trial detention, rumbles on. Beleri, the winning candidate for Himare, running...

It is difficult to find a solution in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina when talking to people who do not want to look for a solution said President Aleksandar Vučić. “We could have sat for 10 hours. It is...