Contextualizing the Relationship Between Borderlands and Political Violence: A Dynamic Space-Time Analysis in North and West Africa

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the role of borderlands in contemporary armed conflicts in North and West Africa. Borderlands are important to the legitimacy and security of states because of their association with sovereignty and the provision of order. They are also essential to efforts by non-state groups to bypass or challenge the same. However, not all borderlands are the same and the evolution of conflict is a complex and dynamic process. Building on previous work on African borderlands, this paper considers how the permeability of borderlands impacts the propensity for nearby violence and how this relationship varies over both space and time. While there is an association between violence and borderlands in aggregate, this is highly contextualized by both the characteristics of the borderland in question and the larger geopolitical context underpinning the violence.

KEYWORDS:

• Borders
• borderlands
• West Africa
• North Africa
• political violence
• terrorism

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the United States Air Force Academy, the Air Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by OECD Sahel and West Africa Club under grant number [AWD09867].