On 9 December 2021, at Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) in Rome, PREVEX-researchers Francesco Strazzari, Luca Raineri (both Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, SSSA, Italy), Abdoul Wahab Cissè (the Alliance for Rebuilding Governance in Africa, ARGA), Morten Bøås, Alessio Illocchi and Kari Osland (all from the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, NUPI), presented findings at a seminar entitled: Governance, Fragility and Insurgency in the Sahel: A Hybrid Political Order in the Making. In addition to the mentioned researchers, Ettore Greco (IAI Executive Vice-President) welcomed and introduced the seminar, followed by a key-note speech by the EUs Special Envoy for the Sahel, Emanuela del Re.
This policy-research meeting aimed at combining different perspectives to explore the contours of political orders in the making. It focused on the trajectory of regional security and multi-level governance over the past decade, addressing the challenges of state fragility and societal resilience in the context of increasing external intervention and growing international rivalry. The Sahel has become increasingly topical as it confronts the international community with intertwined challenges related to climate variability, poverty, food insecurity, population displacement, transnational crime, contested statehood and jihadist insurgencies.
Building on the findings of the research project Fragile states and violent entrepreneurs: conflict, climate, refugees (FRAVENT), political economy and historical sociological lenses were mobilized to shed light on how extra-legal governance plays a crucial role in the deformation, transformation and reformation of political orders in a contested region at Europe’s borders. Such findings have been published in 2020 in a dedicated Special Issue of the International Spectator, journal of the IAI.
