Alessio Iocchi

Working Paper on enabling environments, drivers, and occurrence/nonoccurrence of violent extremism

Why does violent extremism not occur in enabling environments? Based on recent field work in the Sahel and the Maghreb region this is the main question we seek to understand in this working paper. To understand non-occurrence and thereby the foundations of social and individual resilience, we also need to understand the drivers of violent extremism and why they gain traction among some populations while others show much higher degrees of resilience. To achieve this, we will zoom in on cases in Mali, Niger, Tunisia and Morocco, showcasing different trajectories of occurrence and non-occurrence.

The end of stability - how Burkina Faso fell apart

Burkina Faso var lenge ansett som en oase av stabilitet i en konfliktfylt del av Afrika. Det er ikke tilfelle lenger. Islamske opprørere inspirert av jihadisk teologi har tatt over stadig større landområder. En årsak er spill-over-effekter fra tilsvarende konflikter i nabolandet Mali, men forfatterne hevder også at det plutselige fallet til det gamle regimet til Blaise Compaoré også er del av forklaringen på hva som har skjedd i Burkina Faso. Artikkelen viser hvorledes Burkina Faso ble navigert unna konfliktene i nabolandet av hva vi kaller en ‘Big Man’ dyp stat bygget opp rundt formelle og uformelle regimesikkerhetsnettverk. Når denne dype staten forsvant da regimet til Compaoré ble kastet i et folkelig opprør, var grunnen egentlig beredt for at jihadistiske opprørere kunne gjøre et inntog. Gjennom forfatternes studie av denne prosessen, prøver nde å komme til en bedre konseptuell forståelse av hvorledes svake stater faktisk styres, og hvordan noen ledere av slike stater klarer å holde seg ved makten over lang tid, og hva som kan skje når slike ledere til slutt blir kastet fra makten.

The Dangers of Disconnection: Oscillations in Political Violence on Lake Chad

Narrations on fragility and resilience in the Sahel paint a picture about the region’s inherent ungovernability that lead to consider an endless state- and peace-building process as the most feasible governance solution. Everyday practices of violent entrepreneurship, coalescing with inter-community and land-tenure conflicts, now inform social relations and are transforming moral economies around Lake Chad. While competition over territory suitable for farming, grazing and fishing has intensified, dispute-settlement practices organised by community-level authorities have proven ineffective and lacking the necessary means to respond to the encroachment of a wide range of interests claimed by increasingly powerful actors. Meanwhile, communities organised in self-defence militias are undergoing a process of progressive militarisation that tends to normalise violence and legitimise extra-judicial vigilante justice, further empowering capital-endowed arms suppliers gravitating in the jihadi galaxy, such as the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

Il flusso migratorio sul continente africano

The “Faceless Evildoers” of Cabo Delgado: an Islamist Insurgency in Mozambique?

Chad’s Pivotal Role in the Regional Crisis

An analysis of Chad's regime role in the context of the military and humanitarian crisis in the Lake Chad Basin

Jihad globale o insurgency locale? L'ISIS in Africa, da Boko Haram allo Stato Islamico nel Grande Sahara