Exploring the Underlying Drivers of Transnational Terrorism in Africa’s Sahel Region and Counter-terrorism Policy Interventions

Abstract

Contemporary global affairs are faced with one of the most malicious phenomena in human history that has evolved over time at a pace unrivalled by its present outlook. Terrorism and the war against it have come to define the age in which we live. Threats of terrorist attacks and counterterrorism interventions are now part of our daily lives from Paris to Bamako, from New York to Ouagadougou and from Indonesia to Mauritania. Transnational terrorism is redefining the international security landscape and, in the Sahel, this phenomenon has made its existence felt on the security and stability of the region, owing largely to other pressing factors that the study identifies as preconditions and determinant drivers of terrorism. These preconditions and determinants are categorised into structural drivers, enabling drivers, stimulating drivers and precipitating drivers of terrorism. The paper is a qualitative analysis of existing literature on the drivers and counter-policy interventions on transnational terrorism in the Sahel. The paper begins by unpacking reasons for adopting the underlying drivers approach to terrorism in the Sahel. It then provides a brief background and origins of terror in the Sahel, followed by a detailed examination of the underlying drivers of terrorism in the region. The paper concludes by highlighting policy interventions ushered in by relevant actors in the region.