Political stability and security in West and North Africa : Stabilité politique et sécurité en Afrique de l'Ouest et du Nord : points saillants de la conférence

"North and West Africa have experienced a string of explosive developments in the last 3 years. ... Some students of the region are raising the spectre of an 'Afrighanistan' on Europe's southern flank. On 4 and 5 December 2013, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service co-hosted with the UK's Cabinet Office a two-day conference to shed further light on the drivers of growing insecurity in this resource-rich area and their impact in shaping the threat environment in the coming years for the region and Western interests. A multidisciplinary group of twenty-two experts from Canada, the US, Europe and Africa came together to unpack the socio-economic, political and ideological forces at play. They also focused their attention on the exogenous factors at work and the particular dynamics within the extremist forces that will help determine whether they become further entrenched in this chaotic neighbourhood"--