THE ILLOGIC OF DOUBLING DOWN ON A FAILED APPROACH: SECURITY ASSISTANCE AND TERRORISM IN AFRICA
Dennis Jett | 07.01.24
The Illogic of Doubling Down on a Failed Approach: Security Assistance and Terrorism in Africa
It’s not a good day for a combatant commander when a front-page headline in a major newspaper says one of your most important programs has failed. That’s true even if the commander is not to blame—in this case, the failure is the result of an all-of-government effort that is decades in the making.
The officer is General Michael Langley, commander of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) since August 2022. The headline on the June 6 story on the front page of the New York Times reads, “U.S. Confronts Failures as Terrorism Spreads in West Africa.” It describes how, after the United States has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in security assistance to several African armies, terrorism has only gotten worse.
Not only have the armies that have benefited from US largesse failed to eliminate the terrorists, but they have also been good at overthrowing existing governments, as demonstrated by the recent coups in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Niger. On top of this, some governments in the region have given up on help from the United States, as well as France, another longstanding security assistance provider, and have signed up Russian mercenaries instead.
https://mwi.westpoint.edu/the-illogic-of-doubling-down-on-a-failed-approach-security-assistance-and-terrorism-in-africa/
