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Mali: The Next Afghanistan?
| by Immanuel Wallerstein http://www.agenceglobal.com/ | Released: 01 Nov 2012 |
Up to very recently, very, very few persons, outside of its immediate neighbors and its former colonial power (France) had even heard of Mali, much less knew anything about its history and its politics. Today, northern Mali has been taken over militarily by "Salafist" groups sharing the outlook of al-Qaeda and practicing the harshest version of sharia -- with lapidation and amputation as punishments.
This takeover has been condemned by a unanimous vote of the U.N. Security Council, which deemed it "a threat to international peace and security." The resolution cited "the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation" and "the increasing entrenchment of terrorist elements" and the potential "consequences for the countries of the Sahel and beyond." The U.N. declared it was ready to consider the constitution of an "international military force [to recover] the occupied regions in the north of Mali."
The resolution was unanimous but toothless. In fact, Mali today represents the clearest possible case of geopolitical paralysis. All the major and minor powers in the region and beyond the region are genuinely concerned, and yet no one seems willing or able to do anything for fear that doing anything would result in what is being called the "Afghanistanization" of Mali. Furthermore, there are at least a dozen different actors involved, and almost all of them are deeply divided among themselves.
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