Briefs
NIGERIA and Boko-Haram
How did Boko Haram get control of Lake Chad? How does Boko Haram differ from the Islamic State? What is the connection between terrorism and criminality? What hinders Nigerian counter-terrorist efforts?
Briefs Essays
A collapse of the Taliban regime in the medium term (3-5 years)?
How likely is it that the Taliban regime will collapse in 3 to 5 years? Will internal divisions, rebel groups, popular unrest and foreign pressure make it fall?
Briefs
Summary of Arab-Israeli Conflicts since 1948
What were the causes & consequences of the various wars? How do Israeli-Palestinian tensions impact the broader regional context? How do the PLO and the Hamas differ? Why have attempts to pacify Israeli-Palestinian relations fail?
Briefs
International Humanitarian Law (jus in bello)
What are the Geneva and La Haye conventions? What are the three components of the Law of Armed Conflicts? Are human rights law and humanitarian law the same? What are the 5 core principles of the LOAC?
Briefs
Limits of the Power Vacuum Logic in Africa
Liberal actors see Africa as a proxy landscape for their power rivalry with illiberal countries. However, they forget that African States have their own agency and that it’s not a simple zero-sum game, a vacuum is not always spatial.
Briefs
Weak and Failed States in Africa
Who is at the basis of the DRC’s educational system? How do Chad’s rural populations settle property-related disputes? Why do Guinean hunters perform law enforcement missions? Why is a NGO fighting terrorism in Benin’s national parks?
Briefs
ETHIOPIA, ERITREA and the TIGRAY war
What was Ethiopia’s position during the Cold War? What is the history of the relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea? What sparked the Tigray War in 2020?
Briefs
Pan-Africanism: between genuine aspirations and ideological hijacking
Short history, main thinkers and recent developments related to Russia’s influence in Africa.
Briefs
Jihadism in Mali, the Fula case
Who are the Fula and why do some fight with jihadists? Why is the ethno-religious lens an inadequate tool? How has poor governance fueled the security crisis?
Briefs
SOMALIA: al-Qaeda’s base in Eastern Africa
How did Islamist groups exploit state weaknesses? Why did piracy develop there? Why do Kenya and Ethiopia get involved in Somalia’s security issues?
Briefs
SUDAN and SOUTH-SUDAN: the forgotten wars
What caused the 2017 famine in South-Sudan? What are the root causes of the genocide in Darfur? How was Omar al-Bashir deposed by the 2019 revolution?
Briefs
RWANDA and BURUNDI: genocide between Hutu and Tutsi
How did ethnic tensions culminate in
a genocide between Hutus and Tutsis? What role did colonisation play? Who is Paul Kagamé the current Rwandan President ?
Briefs
TURKEY in AFRICA
How does Turkey leverage its soft and hard powers to gain influence in Africa? Which narrative does it develop? What challenges does it face?
Briefs
THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: the resource curse
How come the DRC has so much natural resource but is still poor?
What has been the influence of Rwanda over the DRC over the past decades? What is the M23?
Briefs
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC : civil war and Russian predation
Why do the Seleka and anti-Balaka fight each other? What is Russia doing in CAR? Is the civil war still on? How are the UN and the EU trying to stop it?
Briefs
ARMENIA and AZERBAIJAN: the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
Why did Stalin give Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan? What was the evolution of the conflict since 1992? What role does Russia play there?