Understanding Northern Mali: Local Context is Everything
►http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/190-issues/51886-understanding-northern-mali-local-context-is-everything.html
By Peter Tinti
Think Africa Press
August 28, 2012
Since the Malian coup in April, the west has portrayed the situation in the country as “a threat to international peace and security”. While western governments are worried that the political vacuum in the north could become a jihadist haven, Mali has become a new front in the global war on terror. However, few western policies have taken into consideration the complex local structures that truly determine the political landscape in northern Mali. They have ignored key elements such as ideology, economic interests, local grievances, ethnic identities, tribal networks and personal animosities.
The crisis in northern Mali has become a veritable Rorschach Test for experts in broad subjects like ‘counter-terrorism’, ‘geopolitics’ and ‘security’. That pundits and policymakers peer into the mess and see a “West African Afghanistan” or “Somalia in ‘the heart of Africa’” perhaps tells us more about the analysts than it does about the actual crisis.
#mali #conflit #sahel #islamistes #aqmi