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Reducing violent conflict in Africa is often cited as a reason for governments to work on lowering CO2 emissions – climate matters, but other factors are more important.

While climate change has not created jihadists in Mali, its effects on the livelihoods of already marginalized communities has created fertile grounds for recruitment.

Mali’s multi-layered conflicts cannot be understood from a single analytical perspective, it is not one conflict - but a dynamic system of conflicts.

Attempts by the Macina Liberation Front to rally Fulani herdsmen to its cause should not lead to pastoralists in Western Africa being portrayed as terrorists.

Is France still ‘at home’ in Francophone Africa? The G5 Sahel may well indicate so.

An emerging narrative points to global warming as a driver of conflict in the Sahel but this narrative risks glossing over the real root causes

The key to countering radicalization lies with the communities affected. Building on their abilities to bring about positive change is the basis of effective policy.

Several years of research on the informal economy in West Africa give a perspective on the Sahel and Northern Mali and the following message for policymakers: invest in the informal sector.

Today, three years after French president Francois Hollande claimed to have defeated jihadist groups in Mali, these groups have expanded their area of operation and space has opened for new groups to emerge. It will likely take many years and care...

Fast tracking a unity government does not unify a country, rushing this through will only advance Libyan fragmentation.

Sahel governments in the region have never been more concerned about the fight against terror yet security first approaches struggle to have impact.

A “war-only” strategy by governments only creates more and more terrorists in Mali and the wider region.

The security situation in the Sahel region has become highly volatile over the past years. Due to its geographical position, the Malian state is particularly prone to regional insecurity. As a result of the 2012 crisis in northern Mali, caused by...

Unravelling the Malian puzzle requires looking at the way in which relations between antagonists explain the political violence in Mali. Building on previous work in which we applied social network analysis to West Africa’s conflicts [i], in...

Humanitarian search and rescue has become an increasingly important component of conflict management. Eugenio Cusumano addresses the innovative Migrant Offshore Aid Station.

In four articles published this week, The Broker reports on the experiences of the CoCooN research programme on conflict over natural resources.

The extraordinary opportunity to permeate ‘fortress Europe’ through Libya has serious implications for stability and state consolidation in the Sahel and Maghreb.

Since the outbreak of the Libyan war, migration transport has changed. But although conditions for Tuareg trans-border business became more difficult, it will continue on as before.

Informal negotiations on peace and security advance efficiency but undermine legitimacy of the Council’s actions

An overview of resources that have been accessed for our Sahel Watch programme and that have been recommended by our experts.

On 7 July 2015, The Broker launched a new dossier that explores the connections between Africa’s conflicts. While conflicts are influenced by a diverse array of factors at local, national, regional and international levels, there is a need for pol...

Social distrust and discrimination of religious minorities is part of the post-2012 political dynamic in southern Mali.

The main factors contributing to the rise of Boko Haram firstly relate to the internal crisis of Nigeria’s government.

Studying the effect of new Information and Communication Technologies in Central African social and political movements provides valuable insight into their potential regional impact.

Chad’s approach of engagement in regional governance for peace stands in stark contrast to its approach to governance at home.

Rebel groups and conflicts are understood and framed in very different ways by various actors, even by those collaborating to end a conflict.

In Ethiopia and many African countries, we need a recalibration of developmentalist authoritarianism that feeds exclusion and conflict.

As the European Union struggles to deal with the increased inflow of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Libya, international and regional actors are trying to broker a unity government to bring stability to the country and the...

With so many conflicts emerging in Africa, the connections between these conflicts are becoming important. While conflicts are influenced by a diverse array of factors at local, national, regional and international levels, there is a need for poli...

Whilst UN peacekeeping is more critical than ever, it is also under severe pressure. Peacekeeping numbers and costs are at an all-time high, with peacekeepers operating in more complex and dangerous environments than ever before. This has raised q...

Addressing youth unemployment has become increasingly urgent in the face of a deteriorating security situation where criminal and radical groups have penetrated many parts of Mali.

After eight months of hard talks the Algiers process resulted in a ceasefire agreement and the final draft of a peace plan on 1 March.

The review of 88 frameworks for doing context analysis, originating from a broad range of sectors including development, military, research, policy and economics, shows that there are four aspects of analytical models that cover the breadth and de...

In the complex contexts of fragile or conflict-affected states, where international interventions can easily influence power relations, good context analysis is crucial. Systematically mapping these contexts allows international actors to work eff...

Since 2012, Mali has been suffering from what at first seemed to be a sudden outbreak of armed conflict which eventually led to a military response by France. At that moment, the conflict was framed predominantly as a battle against the rise of ex...

Skill gaps and effective pairing of education with labour market needs remain one of the most pressing obstacles for SME development in Africa.

As long as the northern part of Mali is not occupied by armed troops, it will remain insecure and dangerous.

In recent years, Algeria’s influence has progressively deteriorated. The Mali crisis might be the first real test for Algeria's new-look regional diplomacy.

To succeed in Northern Mali, the international community must apply a much broader regional focus beyond current narrow counter-terrorism efforts.

For more than two years, Mali has been suffering from a sudden eruption of armed conflict. In recent decades, economic, ecological, political and security factors have combined to create fertile ground for conflict. This led to ethnic tensions and...

After three years of civil war in Syria, there is clear evidence that both the government and rebel groups have deliberately starved civilian populations 

Although participation in the decision-making process has increased in the last twenty years in Latin America, genuine participation of local people in environmental governance has been far from reality. Local communities’ level of autonomy in sha...

Geopolitical action is required to cope with the enormous resource challenges that lie ahead.

Actividades extractivas tienen que integrar los intereses estratégicos y las urgencias económicas de los gobiernos con las demandas de los pueblos indígenas.

The suffering of the Palestinians forced off their land is not due to climate change or drought; it is the result of unchecked political forces.

By growing its own soy instead of importing it, Europe can solve soy conflicts – and yield the benefits.

What can be done from home against violent conflict worldwide? ‘Do it yourself’ activism through conflict-sensitive political consumption is on the rise.

In India, some of the most contentious land conflicts over the past decade have involved public-private partnerships.

Until the demand decreases for extreme crude, the conflict between rights and resources will continue.

Latin American societies and states formed around the disputes about control over natural resources, as Bolivian intellectual Rene Zavaleta highlighted. In Bolivia, from the 16th to the 19th century, the exploitation of silver in Potosí and the ex...

Most discussions of power in natural resource management tend to omit the primary issue of capitalism.

The mining issue in South Africa is highly complex and is an excellent  ‘experimental’ site for those interested in environmental conflict resolution. 

Colombia no es la excepción de adquisiciones masivas de tierras en el mundo.

Deforestation-related conflict reflects the power relations between forest users.

The expansion of the extractive frontiers affects the territories of local populations in Latin America.

The fresh eruption of violence in South Sudan illustrates once more the ethnic dividing lines within the countries’ government. In ethnically diverse societies, the division of power and wealth between different groups is a source of conflict, whi...

There is no easy answer to the question of the fate of Ecuador’s Yasuní-ITT region, but a few key steps can maximize the areas of agreement of the many vested interests.

This dossier on ‘Power dynamics and natural resources’ contains five case-study articles and a synthesis summary on the power dynamics underlying both ‘open’ and ‘hidden’ conflicts over natural resources. The dossier also comprises a debate with t...

How to eradicate the root causes of resource conflicts?

The reality behind the game of who gets what, when and how when it comes to natural resources, reveals a power play in which deprived groups in society get the short end of the stick. It also portrays an inherent tension between environmental prot...

Sri Lankan and Indian fishermen are embroiled in an enduring dispute over the use of fishing grounds in the Palk Bay. The dispute is not only a matter of big India versus small Sri Lanka, or big boats versus small boats. Rather, Sri Lankan Tamil f...

‘A big idea from a small country’. This is how Ecuador promoted its proposal to leave oil in the soil of Yasuní National Park in exchange for financial compensation from the international community. Yet, in August 2013– six years after its officia...

Natural resource conflicts take many forms, and they are particularly complicated by scope and scale.

In Ghana and Ethiopia, the anticipated positive local economic effects of the cultivation of biofuel stock have been counterbalanced by disputes between local farmers and largely foreign biofuel stock companies. Land has been sold to foreign inves...

The success of Israel’s innovative water technology is distracting attention from its restrictions on Palestinian access to water.

 Minerals play an important role in the Congolese conflict. But it is certainly not only about greed.

Now that the post-2015 agenda is developing into an integrated framework, how will it define the conflict paradigm?

What was a relentless military dictatorship only a few years ago is now an applauded ‘democracy’. But not everybody is joining in with the clapping.

A recent UN workshop highlighted the ‘blind spot’ of men and boys as victims of sexual violence in conflict. 

African countries need to bring their own social, economic, cultural and political priorities into the post-2015 debate.

More than 80% of labour disputes in China are solved through mediation, but the processes do not eliminate the antagonism.

The launch of the seventh Global Peace Index and the integration of socio-economic indicators.

Improved water management can avoid future water related conflicts, through a de-centralized, de-politicized and transparent approach based on stakeholder involvement and water engineering technology.

For conflict abating strategies two policies are important. The first is addressing enduring inequalities in asset ownership, education and health. The second policy issue is promoting growth with redistribution, truly pro-poor growth.

There is a need to consider food as human security, says Tim Siegenbeek van Heukelom. Technological problem-solving approach is no panacea as it does not truly address the root causes of hunger. 

How are inequality and conflict connected? This question has occupied the minds of thinkers and practitioners for many years. The common-sense argument sounds convincing: where there are large inequalities between rich and poor, the latter become...

At the end of November, 2,000 representatives of governments, international organisations and NGOs convened in Busan as the fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness. Just before the meeting we proposed four criteria by which to judge its outco...

The Busan Conference can be a make it or break it conference for the future of worldwide development cooperation. It can turn the page by being self-critical and encompassing many more players and actors.

De contouren van het nieuwe kennisbeleid voor OS zijn vastgesteld en de details zullen de komende maanden worden uitgewerkt.

It was said that there was a fisherman who caught a lot of fish with his rod, which caused the other fishermen to envy him.

Peacebuilding has to be centre stage at the high-level debate on aid effectiveness in Busan.

Don't try to change the aid industry, Lucia Nass argues: "Focus on mindsets and relationships instead".

Robert Papstein taught me that famine is as much the engineered outcome of disastrous politics as the simple result of unforgiving drought

On Thursday 18 August the FAO had a follow-up Emergency Ministerial-Level Meeting on the deteriorating food situation in the Horn of Africa. Famine has been formally declared in several regions of Somalia, but populations in neighbouring countries...

England has been in the grip of looting, rioting and vandalism during the past days. And being in England at the moment - with BBC News on in the background - I’m reading a speech by Professor of Economics at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Pa...

The dust has settled. Shaheer George is finally able to look back at the recent events in Egypt and does so at the TNI Fellows Meeting in Amsterdam (3-4 June 2011). George is an Egyptian youth activist, active in pro-democracy groups including the...

Salwa Ismail is professor of politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. At the TNI Fellows Meeting in Amsterdam (3-4 June), she discussed the differences between the revolutions in Egypt and Syria....