Book talk: A 'security traffic jam' or networking missions in Mali?

Join the Peacekeeping, Peacebuilding and Human Rights Working Group for a book talk on the fantastic book Securing the Sahel by Nina Wilen.

Book summary

How did mission three distinct military missions in the Sahel: Operation Barkhane, MINUSMA, and the EUTM coexist, cooperate, and coordinate between them?  Despite differences in mandates, military cultures, and resources, these missions adapted to evolving security challenges, interacting at tactical, operational, and strategic levels. In this presentation, the author examines how senior officials from the different missions navigated complex mandates by leveraging professional networks, sharing resources, and devising ad hoc solutions. Using Social Network Analysis concepts, it explores both formal structures and informal collaboration shaped by nationality, proximity, and necessity. 

Author

Nina Wilén is Director of the Africa Programme at the Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations and Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science at Lund University, as well as a Research Leader at IOB at the University of Antwerp.

Previously, she has held positions at Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Antwerp University and the Royal Military Academy in Belgium. In 2015 she was a Visiting Researcher at Stellenbosch University and in 2017-2018 she was a visiting researcher at Lund University.

Her research interests include conflict analysis and peace processes and the relation between sovereignty and intervention. More specifically she has been doing research on military interventions, Security Force Assistance, Security Sector Reform (SSR), the politics of peacekeeping operations and military sociology. Geographically her research is concentrated to Sub-Saharan Africa, where she has conducted extensive fieldwork in Niger, Liberia, the DRC, Burundi, Rwanda and South Africa.

Registration will close two hours before the event begins.