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{
  "authors": [
    "Anouar Boukhars"
  ],
  "type": "other",
  "centerAffiliationAll": "dc",
  "centers": [
    "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace",
    "Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center"
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  "primaryCenter": "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace",
  "programAffiliation": "MEP",
  "programs": [
    "Middle East"
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  "regions": [
    "North Africa",
    "Mali"
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  "topics": [
    "Security",
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}

Source: Getty

Other

Al-Qaeda’s Resurgence in North Africa?

The January 2013 French intervention in northern Mali has severely degraded the military capabilities of militant organizations. But as violent extremists are being subdued in one area, new hot spots of confrontation are emerging.

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By Anouar Boukhars
Published on Aug 27, 2013
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The Middle East Program in Washington combines in-depth regional knowledge with incisive comparative analysis to provide deeply informed recommendations. With expertise in the Gulf, North Africa, Iran, and Israel/Palestine, we examine crosscutting themes of political, economic, and social change in both English and Arabic.

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Source: FRIDE

The January 2013 French intervention in northern Mali has severely degraded the military capabilities of militant organizations, disrupted their organisational capacities and destroyed many of their sanctuaries. But as violent extremists are being subdued in one area, new hot spots of confrontation are emerging. When forced out of one of their safe havens, transnational terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) just disappear into other peripheral zones of tension. This paper examines how chaotic environments in North Africa are giving new breathing space to a splintered terrorist organisation. Chastened by its many blunders in northern Mali, an off-balance AQIM is trying to shift gear, focusing less on becoming the face of local militancy in North Africa and more on stealthily parasiting local militant organisations without dominating them.

The full text of this working paper is available on the FRIDE website.

About the Author

Anouar Boukhars

Former Nonresident Fellow, Middle East Program

Boukhars was a nonresident fellow in Carnegie’s Middle East Program. He is a professor of countering violent extremism and counter-terrorism at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University.

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Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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