Interview With Koffi Kouakou (APSACO 2019)

“Hiring outsiders to fight your battles is as old as war itself”. Peter W. Singer (2011) Mercenaries, private contractors, soldiers of fortune, dogs of war, guns for hire, war lords ... These are some of the names given to individuals working for private companies that provide military and security services. The debate around the use of these companies is deeply polarized, with some authors portraying such military contractors as ‘messiahs’, praising their efficiency in modern conf ...

Almost ten years after the beginning of the security crisis in the Sahel, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger face a graver predicament than ever before. In the throes of multiple insurgencies, they and their foreign patrons, including France, have shown the limits of military containment. While these three countries are the victims of terrorist aggression, their crises also have deep domestic roots, including long-standing patterns of state abuses of their populations, even in the more d ...

La crise de la IIème République tunisienne exacerbe l’incapacité des institutions de représentation démocratique à prendre en compte les demandes socio-économiques populaires, à l’origine de la « révolution de 2011 ». Conçue dans l’objectif de rompre avec l’ancien régime bénalien, la IIème République a permis de doter la Tunisie des infrastructures politiques et institutionnelles nécessaires, lui permettant d’encadrer ses libertés, tout en définissant son régime démocratique. Or, l’ ...

The geographic position of Morocco and its history makes it a strategic country when it comes to matters of international migration. Having long been considered as a country of origin, the fast paced growing development of Morocco soon brought it from being merely a sending country to becoming a transit and destination to migrants from other parts of Africa. This change in the migratory context of Morocco has led to the adoption of a series of policies and governmental actions to ta ...

In a country as stable as Germany, changes of Chancellor are a rarity. Angela Merkel stayed in power for sixteen years, as did Helmut Kohl in his time. The new three-party coalition (Social Democrats, Greens, Liberals) intends to shake up the country. How should Africa approach this new leadership? Can the new government bring momentum to Euro-African relations? Can Berlin bring about a clear understanding of Africa’s development issues and geopolitical subtleties? ...

Energy markets have experienced significant disruptions since the outbreak of COVID-19. In late 2021, soaring natural gas prices triggered a new crisis, leading to risks of energy supply shortages worldwide and propelling the issue of energy security to the forefront. Africa will not be spared the repercussions of this crisis, which could further increase energy inequality, which is in turn linked to other forms of inequality. Indeed, in a context of persistent inflation, the lack o ...