(MintPress) – The U.S. is preparing to invade Mali, an impoverished West African state that has become the latest battleground in the fight against terrorism. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made an appeal to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, asking the regional ally for his assistance in preparation for a future international intervention in Mali.
The strong push for an invasion, spearheaded by France and the U.S., highlights the hypocrisy of leadership that pays lip service to respecting international law and the sovereignty of other nations, while promoting anti-terror campaigns as a means to establish spheres of influence in areas holding geostrategic importance.
While Ansar Dine, al-Qaida in the Maghreb and other terrorist affiliates continue to pose a threat to West African stability, attacking terror will only provide a temporary solution to a much larger set of problems. Mali remains one of the poorest countries in the world, and any long term strategy aimed at eradicating threats to national security must focus on a rights based approach that sees extremism as a symptom, not a cause of the greater issue at hand: extreme poverty.
Subduing Tuareg separatism
Speaking on behalf of Secretary of State Clinton, a State Department spokesperson stressed the crucial role that Algeria will play in helping to restore order in Mali, saying:
“In the context of what happened in North Mali when the government forces up there collapsed and the coup happened, Algeria’s importance has become ever more important and it will really be a central focus in the talks between the secretary and president.”
Mali was suspended from the African Union in March after Tuareg rebels seized two-thirds of the country from the central government in Bamako. The breakaway state, known as “Azawad,” has leaders in Niger, Algeria and Libya worried about internal unrest and similar nationalist uprisings inspired by the ongoing Arab Spring movements.
After the Tuareg uprising, Mali was suspended from participation in the African Union (AU), the regional body representing the countries of the African continent. However, after working with the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC), the body decided to reinstate the West African state at the end of last month.
African Union leaders qualified the decision by stating that Malian leaders must work with an international coalition to restore peace and security in the country.
“We are working … to finalise the joint planning for the early deployment of an African-led international military force to help Mali recover the occupied territories in the North,” Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, chairwoman of the AU Commission, told the PSC in a statement last month.
“At the same time, we will leave the door of dialogue open to those Malian rebel groups willing to negotiate,” added Dlamini-Zuma.
The Malian military barely retains a monopoly on the legitimate use of force, a reflection of the weak central government that is on the edge of collapse.
As a result, Mali is considered a country in danger of becoming a failed state open to unlawful action by stateless actors. According to Foreign Policy Magazine’s Failed State Index, Mali is listed as “in danger,” receiving an average score of 6.5 on a 10 point scale.
While there are dozens of countries considered “less politically stable,” Mali scores poorly in terms of “mounting internal pressures,” receiving an 8.8 on a scale of 10. This accurately reflects the rise of a strong Tuareg separatist movement that continues to claim the Northern two-thirds of Mali as a legitimate, but still unrecognized state.
The Tuareg are a nomadic people descended from North African Berber tribes. Their ancestral homeland stretches across much of Northern Mali, South Algeria and parts of Libya. The ancient trade city of Timbuktu, a world heritage site, is the de-facto capital of the breakaway Tuareg state.
While the Tuareg separatist movement has proven to be a secular nationalist movement with goals of installing democracy and free expression to citizens living in Azawad, the international community continues to conflate all rebels in the region as subscribing to a set of terrorist principles.
The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) stated clearly during their unilateral call for independence in April that they plan to respect the principles embodied in the U.N. Charter, as well as the sovereignty of neighboring states.
In reality, Ansar Dine, al-Qaida and other affiliated terrorist groups have co-opted the MNLA’s independence movement to capitalize on their own set of jihadist organizational goals.
Expanding drone warfare: fighting al-Qaida affiliates
While France and the U.S. have already expanded surveillance drone operations in Mali and other neighboring states in West Africa, the ongoing problems of crushing poverty and corrupt central leadership remain the root cause of the problem.
Combating extremism in all kinds is an imperative. However, any multilateral approach to the problem must address these devastating root causes if the international community wants to create an enduring solution to the problem.
According to the 2010 Multidimensional Poverty Index, Mali remains one of the poorest countries in the world. The study conducted by Oxford University and the United Nations examined countries on three basic criteria: length of life, knowledge and standard of living. According to this study, Mali was ranked as the third poorest country in the world.
According to the comprehensive study, 87 percent of the country’s 14 million citizens live in poverty. Additionally, 51.4 percent of the population lives on less than $1.25 per day, the accepted U.N. standard for determining the conditions of “extreme poverty.”
Improving the quality of life for the average citizen while helping to strengthen state institutions will provide Malians with the tools needed to confront extremism and lawlessness in their own country in the long-term without relying on a neocolonial guardianship model of dependence that relies upon international aid, and outside military intervention to solve a set of internal problems.