The Sahel Region: Coups, Jihadism, Wagner & Anti-French Sentiments

Rapid-fire military takeovers in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger; Wagner - the Kremlin's proxy force - moving into the region while the French army is moving out amidst a groundswell of hostility against France's postcolonial presence; and the fastest-growing Jihadist insurgency in the world... Of late, the swath of arid land stretching across Africa south of the Sahara has been much in the news. Five experts will engage in a timely conversation about the Sahel.

Leif Brottem is Associate Professor of Global Development Studies at Grinnell College in the state of Iowa.

Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos, a Doctor in political science, is a Senior Researcher at the Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD).

Alioune Sow is a joint appointment in French and African Studies at the University of Florida.

Stephen W. Smith, Ph.D., teaches African Studies at Duke with a research focus on conflict analysis, demography/population age structure and Franco-African postcoloniality..