Sub-Saharan Africa

Less than a week before its planned deployment, the future of the EU military mission to the Central African Republic (CAR) is increasingly in jeopardy. In four consecutive force generation conferences held in February and early March, EU member states have been unable to muster the required troops and equipment. Subsequently, in an appeal letter to EU governments dated 11 March, EU High Representative Catherine Ashton warned that the lack of necessary capabilities puts the plans to launch the operation by mid-March at risk, adding that a delay would taint the EU’s credibility.

What do you see when you look at the Central African Republic (CAR)? The crisis in the previously largely unknown former French colony is becoming a Rorschach test for international policymakers. Few would deny that the CAR has endured a hellish breakdown of basic order that has claimed at least 2,000 lives and forced a quarter of the country’s 4 million citizens from their homes.

The European Union, so often accused of lacking strategic purpose, seems to have discovered a new security role: keeping African airports safe.

Read the full ECFR article here.

Is there a lonelier or more poorly understood warrior than Francois Hollande?

Read the full World Politics Review article here.

Lists of African success stories do not tend to include Chad. More than half of the country’s citizens live below the poverty line. Yet this year, Western powers and the U.N. have turned to Chad to help manage new crises in Mali and the Central African Republic (CAR).

Read the full World Politics Review article here