Putting the recent coups in the Sahel in broader perspective
Thoughts on state-building, democracy, and geopolitics
I: How did we get here?
The recent spate of coups (or serious attempts) in Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, and Sudan are not just about democratic backsliding. They are also symptoms state-building failures, elite complacency, perceived failures of democratic government, and the shaky sovereignty of these states. Unfortunately for…