Nina Wilén is Assistant Professor in International Relations at Université Libre de
Bruxelles and the Director for the Africa Programme at Egmont Institute
for International Relations.
Her presentation will focus on
Niger and a new strategic military collaboration established in 2017 by the
Belgian Special Forces Group, which is part of Belgium’s increased engagement
in the Sahel in the last few years. In light of her latest fieldwork trip, she
situates this new strategy in a broader context of Belgian military
collaboration in Southern Africa and provides a critical analysis of the
strategy and its implementation, as well as identifying challenges for the
future.
Øystein H. Rolandsen is Senior Researcher at PRIO and Julian Karssen is a Master's student at the University of Oslo.
They will present results from a PRIO policy report on Security
Force Assistance to the Sahel and Horn of Africa. The report summarises the
main challenges caused by the main providers’ (the US, France and the EU)
fragmentary approach and the structural weakness of the highly fragile states
in which the SFA programmes are implemented.
Col.
Franco Merlino and Capt. Ludovica Glorioso from the NATO Security Force Assistance Centre of Excellence in Rome will conclude the session with remarks on the role of NATO and its member states in the provision of SFA in the continent.