The Soviet Union conducted a robust policy toward Africa, but that ended with the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. As Russian analysts today admit, Africa, relatively speaking, fell off the map of Russian foreign policy after 1991. It is only in the... MORE

Summary   Abd al-Wahhab Muhammad Qaid, the elder brother of a top al-Qaeda commander killed in an American drone strike in Pakistan last summer, has emerged as a strong candidate in the upcoming election for Libya’s top political job president of the General National Congress (GNC).... MORE

Introduction  In the remote regions of South Sudan’s Jonglei state, a failed politician, former theology student and military neophyte has managed to turn his personal dissatisfaction with the administration of the newly created South Sudan into an insurgency that draws on tribal rivalries, external interference... MORE

In Boko Haram leader Abu Shekau’s first public statement in June 2010, he surprised Nigerian government officials when he addressed the message to the “Leaders of al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups in Algeria, Iraq, Somalia and Yemen” (Agence-France Presse, July 14, 2010). At that time,... MORE

Operation Serval, the French-led military intervention in Northern Mali brought major changes to the strategic landscape and geopolitical trends in the region, curbing, or at least slowing, the increasing presence and local control that jihadist groups have pursued in the region since 2003. The intervention... MORE

When a pair of suicide bombings occurred almost simultaneously at important economic and military targets in Niger last week, it raised the specter of broadening Salafi-Jihadist activities paralyzing the political and economic development of a vast stretch of north and west Africa. Niger, possibly the... MORE

Summary Libya’s quasi-parliament recently approved a political isolation law prohibiting a range of Qaddafi-era officials from political office or taking government jobs. The law was passed over the objections of the government and after revolutionary militias blockaded key ministries, refusing to leave until the measure... MORE

Nigeria has experienced years of sectarian violence between Christians and Muslims and endured massacres and bombings by religiously-inspired groups like Boko Haram. Now, however, with the slaughter of as many as 90 members of Nigeria’s security forces, practitioners of one of Nigeria’s many forms of... MORE

Two years ago, Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia (AST) established itself as the premiere Salafi-Jihadi organization operating in the post-revolution environment. AST has become a key player not necessarily because of its size, but because of the anxiety it gives to many who worry about their... MORE

As oil theft in southern Nigeria’s Niger Delta region reaches up to an unprecedented 250,000 barrels per day, there are signs that al-Haji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, the man who helped found the militant movements of the Delta and perfected the practice of “bunkering” (as tapping the... MORE