US Counterterrorism in Sub-Saharan Africa

Posted this week at the US Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute – US Counterterrorism in Sub-Saharan Africa: Understanding Costs, Cultures, and Conflicts by Dr. Donovan C. Chau.

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has never been the centerpiece of US foreign and defense policy. Yet the current struggle between the United States and its allies against terrorist groups and individuals motivated by Islamic extremism thrusts SSA forward as a front in the global conflict. The author asks, centrally, what is the most effective long-term approach to US counterterrorism in SSA. By comparing views in Washington, DC, with perspectives from SSA, he assesses that a fundamental and dangerous misunderstanding of SSA may be leading US policy astray. Recommending a new grand strategic approach to US counterterrorism policy, he suggests urgently educating a future generation of analysts, officers, and policymakers on SSA–whose interest must match their knowledge and understanding.

More at SSI.