The dilemmas of the French armies in the Sahel

In June 2021, President Emmanuel Macron announced the transformation of the French military operation in the Sahel. As the security situation in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger struggles to improve, the question of the sustainability of French military presence is being raised more and more insistently within national governments—and in academia. By examining the ways in which this debate was handled by French institutional actors (officers, diplomats, civil administrators, and political representatives), the study highlights the persistence of three dilemmas that more broadly structure all considerations regarding French military policy since the early days of independence. The study is based on a series of interviews with senior officers in Paris, supplemented by a six-month stay in the French embassy in Niger and by work on French diplomatic and military archives.