Abstract
French-American cooperation in the fight against terrorism, now mostly in the Sahel region of Africa, has become one of the most important elements of the French-American bilateral relationship today. Its main elements are intelligence cooperation, Special Force cooperation, and US logistical and financial support for Operation Barkhane, the French operation in the Sahel. But changing domestic circumstances, as well as criticism and skepticism on the existing counterterrorism strategy, are leading both countries to review both the general approach to counterterrorism in Africa and their own implications. These questions must be considered in the broader context of the return of great power competition, how it affects the hierarchy of threats and priorities (differently) in France and in the United States, and how it will affect Africa.
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Notes
- 1.
Serval was a military operation launched in January 2013 to counter the advance of jihadist forces on Mali’s capital Bamako: see Christopher Chivvis, The French War on Al Qa’ida in Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016). The Barkhane operation succeeded to Serval in the summer of 2014, marking the transition to a stabilization mission, covering a larger area of the Sahel, specifically the five countries of the G5 Sahel: Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Chad. See Bruno Charbonneau, “De Serval à Barkhane: les problèmes de la guerre contre le terrorisme au Sahel,” Les Temps Modernes, nos. 693–694 (2017): 322–340.
- 2.
This chapter draws from several previous works by the author on US policy in Africa: “Le dilemme sécurité-libertés: les contradictions de la politique américaine en Afrique,” Politique Américaine, no. 24 (2015); “La stratégie américaine en Afrique,” Étude de l’IRSEM, no. 36 (Paris: Irsem, 2014), http://www.defense.gouv.fr/content/download/340846/4786994/file/Etude%20IRSEM%2036%20-%202014.pdf. Also published in English “U.S. Strategy in Africa”; “L’Afrique est restée sous le radar de Donald Trump,” Le Monde, November 10, 2018, https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2018/11/10/trump-meprise-autant-l-afrique-qu-obama-la-respectait_5381708_3212.html; “Pour l’armée américaine, l’Afrique est un laboratoire de la lutte antiterroriste,” Le Monde, November 20–21, 2016, https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2018/11/10/trump-meprise-autant-l-afrique-qu-obama-la-respectait_5381708_3212.html.
- 3.
Alice Pannier and Oliver Schmitt, “To Fight Another Day: France Between the Fight Against Terrorism and Future Warfare,” International Affairs 95, no. 4 (2019): 897–916.
- 4.
Michael Shurkin, France’s War in Mali: Lessons for an Expeditionary Army (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2014).
- 5.
Department of Defense, Summary of 2018 National Defense Strategy of the USA: Sharpening the American Military’s Competitive Edge (Washington, DC: Department of Defense, January 2018), https://dod.defense.gov/Portals/1/Documents/pubs/2018-National-Defense-Strategy-Summary.pdf.
- 6.
Senate Committee on Armed Services, “Statement of General Thomas D. Waldhauser, United States Marine Corps Commander United States Africa Command,” March 13, 2018, https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Waldhauser_03-13-18.pdf.
- 7.
Daniel Flatley, “Africa’s Terror Fight to Suffer as China, Russia Take U.S. Focus,” Bloomberg News, July 11, 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-11/africa-terror-fight-to-suffer-as-china-russia-take-u-s-focus.
- 8.
Thomas A. Shannon, “U.S.-African Partnerships: Advancing Common Interests. Remarks by Thomas A. Shannon, Jr., Under Secretary for Political Affairs at U.S. Institute of Peace,” U.S Department of State, Washington, DC, September 13, 2017, https://www.state.gov/remarks-and-releases-under-secretary-for-political-affairs/u-s-african-partnerships-advancing-common-interests/.
- 9.
Department of Defense, “National Defense Strategy.”
- 10.
Stephen Tankel, “Donald Trump’s Shadow War,” Politico Magazine, May 9, 2018, https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/05/09/donald-trumps-shadow-war-218327; Maya Kandel, “La lutte contre le terrorisme sous Obama,” Annuaire Français des Relations Internationales (Paris: Edition Panthéon-Assas, 2017).
- 11.
Loren DeJonge Schulman and Alice Friend, “The Pentagon’s Transparency Problem,” Foreign Affairs, May 2, 2018, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2018-05-02/pentagons-transparency-problem.
- 12.
Department of Defense, “October 2017 Niger Ambush: Summary of Investigation,” May 10, 2018.
- 13.
Scott R. Anderson and Sabrina McCubbin, “Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s AUMF Hearing,” Lawfare Blog, November 1, 2017, https://www.lawfareblog.com/summary-senate-foreign-relations-committees-aumf-hearing.
- 14.
Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Eric Schmitt, “Special Operations Forces in Africa Likely to Face Cuts in Major Military Review,” New York Times, June 4, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/04/world/africa/commandos-africa-pivot-major-powers.html.
- 15.
John Campbell, “U.S. Military Presence in Sub-Saharan Africa Will Likely Decline,” Council on Foreign Relations, June 5, 2018, https://www.cfr.org/blog/us-military-presence-sub-saharan-africa-will-likely-decline.
- 16.
Joe Penney, “Africa, Latest Theater in America’s Endless War,” New York Review of Books, March 12, 2018, https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/03/12/africa-latest-theater-in-americas-endless-war/.
- 17.
Donald Trump, “Statements & Releases, Text of a Letter from the President to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President Prop Tempore of the Senate,” June 8, 2018, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/text-letter-president-speaker-house-representatives-president-pro-tempore-senate-4/.
- 18.
John M. Donnelly, “Senate to Weigh Large Cuts to Military Aid,” Roll Call, 19 juillet 2018, https://www.rollcall.com/news/policy/senate-weigh-large-cuts-military-aid.
- 19.
Jack Detsch, “Congress Seeks Uptick in North Africa Operations,” Al-Monitor, June 25, 2018, https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/06/congress-north-africa-operations-sahara.html.
- 20.
John Norris, “Bipartisan Advances in International Development Defy Conventional Wisdom,” American Progress, May 8, 2018, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/news/2018/05/08/450447/bipartisan-advances-international-development-defy-conventional-wisdom/.
- 21.
John Vandiver, “Armed U.S. Drones Up and Running in Niger,” Stars and Stripes, July 20, 2018, https://www.stripes.com/news/armed-us-drones-up-and-running-in-niger-1.538637.
- 22.
Marc-Antoine Pérousse de Montcols, “En Afrique, la lute contre le terrorisme est la nouvelle rente des régimes autoritaire,” Interview by Maria Malagardis, Libération, May 30, 2018.
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Kandel, M. (2020). Hand in Hand and Eye to Eye? US–French Counterterrorism Cooperation in the Sahel in the Trump-Macron Era. In: Quessard, M., Heurtebize, F., Gagnon, F. (eds) Alliances and Power Politics in the Trump Era. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37258-3_7
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