CIAO DATE: 03/2014
November 2013
International Strategic Research Organization (USAK)
The crisis is an outgrowth of the colonial period which had strained and eventually torn the social fabrics of the region. French colonial policies regarding education, administration, an economics had contributed to a competitive and divisive atmosphere. Now, Mali suffers from widespread ethnic separatism. The socialist regime of newly-indepenent Mali failed to reconcile the alienated communities of the northern regions. The peoples of the south, too, were dissatisfied with their oppressive government–something which deepend the young country’s political crisis. This environment produced the so-called “Tuareg rebellion”. The fierce clashes in the early stages of the rebellion and the drought in Mali’s northern regions led to massive migrations of Tuaregs to neighbouring countries. Changes in the regional environment in the 1990s brought new dimensions to the crisis. The Algerian Civil War, the end to the war in Afghanistan, and the Libyan embargo precipitated the spread of terrorism, trafficking, the drug trade, and cross-border criminal networks. Collectively, these phenomena created a new constellation of power in northern Mali. The international economic crisis and the developments known as the “Arab Spring”, along with shifting geo-strategic dynamics in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, have pushed Africa into an arena for international disputes and rivalries. Mali has been one of the foremost countries to be affected. Transformations at the global level have pressured most governments to defend their traditional interests. Some powers, in contrast, have been scanning for openings and opportunities in the weaknesses of others. BRICS have thus managed to emerge as new powers on the African continent traditionally dominated by France, the U.K., and to a lesser extent, the U.S.
Resource link: The Great Power Struggle for Africa The Crisis in Mali [PDF] - 7.9M