Perilous Desert — Sources of Saharan Insecurity

The states of North Africa have undergone unprecedented political change in the past two years. Much of the policy and academic community has been focusing on the momentous developments in Tunis, Tripoli, and Cairo. Less attention has been paid to developments far to the south of these capitals, where the new security challenges are emerging on the Saharan periphery.

The Sahara has always suffered from fragile governance and transnational threats such as Islamist militancy, illicit smuggling, and ethnic conflict. However, these interlocking problems have increased dramatically in the post-2011 period. The sources and enablers of instability are complex and in many cases deeply ingrained in the flawed political institutions, weak capacity, and longstanding societal fissures of the individual states, rather than transnational actors like al Qaeda or external shocks like the Libyan Revolution.

Based on the authors' extensive fieldwork in the region, this volume canvasses the Saharan security landscape, focusing specifically on the sources of change and continuity since 2011. It explores the relationships between weak governance, demographic and ethnic tensions, and external stressors like illicit smuggling, terrorism, and the flow of arms.

ContentsForeword, Marwan MuasherIntroduction, Frederic Wehrey1. The Struggle for Security in Eastern Libya, Frederic Wehrey2. Borderline Chaos? Stabilizing Libya's Periphery, Peter Cole3. Organized Crime and Conflict in the Sahel-Sahara Region, Wolfram Lacher4. The Paranoid Neighbor: Algeria and the Conflict in Mali, Anouar Boukhars5. The Drivers of Insecurity in Mauritania, Anouar Boukhars6. Mauritania's Islamists, Alex Thurston7. Simmering Discontent in the Western Sahara, Anouar BoukharsConclusion, Frederic Wehrey and Anouar Boukhars

Frederic Wehrey is a senior associate in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace focusing on security and political reform in the Gulf and North Africa. He is the author of the forthcoming book Sectarian Politics in the Gulf: From the Iraq War to the Arab Uprisings (Columbia University Press). Anouar Boukhars is an assistant professor of international relations at McDaniel College, Maryland. Peter Cole is working in Libya with Small Arms Survey and was previously a senior Libya analyst at the International Crisis Group. Wolfram Lacher is a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik), Berlin. Alex Thurston is a Ph.D. candidate in Religious Studies at Northwestern University.