Beatriz de León Cobo / Irene Pujol Chica
14 October 2021
On 10 September, the Centre for International Security of the Francisco de Vitoria University organised the Conference on Foreign Policy in the Sahel. Throughout the day, several debate forums and colloquiums were held focusing on the stability of the Sahel and the role of the international community, particularly the European Union and Spain, in contributing to the stability and security of the two shores of the Mediterranean.
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At the closing roundtable, under the title Eight Years of International Operations in the Sahel: Rethinking the Strategy, Mr. Ángel Losada, Spanish diplomat and European Union Special Representative for the Sahel until 2021; Mr. Emmanuel Dupuy, Director of the French think tank Institut de Prospective et Sécurité en Europe; Mr. Alfonso García-Vaquero Pradal, Brigadier General of the Spanish Army, former commander of the EUTM Mali mission; and Mr. Boubacar Ba, researcher at the Centre d'Analyse sur la Gouvernance et la Sécurité au Sahel, moderated by Beatriz de León Cobo, researcher and coordinator of the Expert Group Sahel-Europe Dialogue Forum, analysed the impact of international operations on the ground and their evolution in order to better adapt to the current strategic scenario.
The fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban last August after 20 years of intervention was a serious blow to the international community and raises the need to reassess the strategy, modus operandi and impact of other international operations on the ground. In this sense, international operations in the Sahel are particularly the subject of interest and comparison, as the region is considered the cradle of another frozen conflict and the equivalent for France of what Afghanistan has been for the United States.
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