For the last two decades, the U.S. military has been heavily invested in Africa — in training, weapons sharing, and basing — per its "war on terrorism." Unfortunately, the places in Africa that have had the most U.S. investment in this regard are now among the most unstable on the planet. Somalia continues to be wracked by militia violence and a fragile (at best) government, while the Sahel in West Africa has experienced no less than 20 government coups since 2010. Elizabeth Shackelford and Emma Sanderson of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs join us this week to talk about their latest report (with Ethan Kessler), "Less is More: A New Strategy for US Security Assistance to Africa," which argues that not only have these counter-terror operations failed to make life in these countries better, they have actually increased security threats for the people who live there, and to American interests.
In the first segment, Kelley & Dan discuss the old-school hawks making a big — and cringeworthy — return on the GOP debate stage, with Ron Desantis and Vivek Ramaswamy taking their body blows on Ukraine.
More from Shackelford and Sanderson:
Less is More: A New Strategy for US Security Assistance to Africa, Elizabeth Shackelford, Emma Sanderson, Ethan Kessler, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 8/21/23
What's tragic about the coup in Niger, Elizabeth Shackelford, Chicago Tribune (paywall), 8/11/23
The Dissent Channel, Elizabeth Shackelford, PublicAffairs, May 2020.
Shackelford & Sanderson: Watching our military assistance in Africa go up in smoke