Chad (merged thread)

[davidbfpo]

Hat tip to New Yorker magazine for this 'long read' on Lake Chad and the surrounding context, mainly for one nation: Chad. It deserves a read, if only to illustrate the human aspects and the policy mess around the steadily shrinking lake itself.

Link:https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...arian-disaster

A "taster" passage:

In recent months, I have asked many American diplomatic and military officials to define a coherent long-term strategy for the region, but none of them have been able to articulate more than a vague wish: that by improving local governments and institutions, encouraging democratic tendencies, and facilitating development, the international community can defeat terrorism. In Chad, the security-based approach mistakes the strengthening of Dbys regime for the stabilization of the Chadian state. The strategy is a paradox: in pursuing stability, it strengthens the autocrat, but, in strengthening the autocrat, it enables him to further abuse his position, exacerbating the conditions that lead people to take up arms.

There are several threads on the region, notably those on Chad, Mali, Niger and Nigeria. Chad thread, with 50 posts and 41.6k views:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=4824