Europe and the Sahel-Maghreb Crisis

The report analyses how European policy-makers have come to perceive the Sahel as a threat to Europe’s own security and stability. Drawing on input and analysis provided by an international team of experts and scholars and focusing on trans-national jihadism and cross-border migration, the report argues that, although European powers spearheaded by France have succeeded in reducing a number of the most immediate threats to the survival of states and societies in some of the most vulnerable parts of the Sahel, the international community has failed to generate the conditions that would foster long-term peace and development. On that basis it suggests that the European powers should look for ways to inject life into the strategic objective of bringing the North African powers into play when attempting to solve the crisis in the Sahel.