Africanistan
Development or Jihad
Price: 795.00
ISBN:
9780199485666
Publication date:
13/08/2018
Paperback
404 pages
Price: 795.00
ISBN:
9780199485666
Publication date:
13/08/2018
Paperback
404 pages
Serge Michailof
In Africa, progress can be seen across the board. But is this so-called progress sustainable? The continent is a powder keg: the powder is demographics and unemployment the detonator. By 2050, the number of young people of working age in Africa is expected to be three times that of China’s. But will there be enough jobs for them? What is troubling for the continent is even more dramatic for the Sahel, a huge region of about 100 million inhabitants where insecurity is spreading like a bushfire. Despite major differences in geography and culture, there are huge similarities between the Sahel and Afghanistan. And unfortunately the same recipes that failed in Afghanistan are being rolled out in the Sahel. Are we headed to a ‘Sahelistan’ and to an ‘Africanistan’? Serge Michailof helps us find the answer to this important question.
Rights: World Rights
Serge Michailof
Description
In Africa, progress can be seen across the board. But the important question is whether this so-called progress is sustainable. The continent is a powder keg: the powder is demographics and unemployment the detonator. By 2050, the number of young people of working age in Africa is expected to be three times that of China’s. But will there be enough jobs for them?
What is troubling for the continent is even more dramatic for the Sahel, a huge region of about 100 million inhabitants where insecurity is spreading like a bushfire. Despite major differences in geography and culture, there are huge similarities between the Sahel and Afghanistan: a demographic impasse, stagnating agriculture, widespread rural misery, high unemployment, deep ethnic and religious fault lines, weak states, regional instability, drug trafficking, and the spread of radical Islam. And unfortunately the same recipes that failed in Afghanistan are being rolled out in the Sahel. Are we headed to a ‘Sahelistan’ and to an ‘Africanistan’? Serge Michailof helps us find the answer to this important question.
About the Author
SERGE MICHAILOF has had an exceptional career as a development practitioner across continents. He is now a researcher at the Ferdi Foundation in France.
Serge Michailof
Table of contents
Foreword by Paul Collier
Preface
Introduction
Part I: Sub-Saharan Africa: The End of Euphoria
1. The new threats to Africa’s stability and growth
2. Programmed demographic explosion in the Sahel?
3. Marginalization and underemployment in rural Africa
4. Will Africa skip the industrial development stage?
Part II: Fragile States in the Eye of the Storm
5. What causes fragility in certain states?
6. Weak institutions weaken fragile states
7. The ignored fragility of Côte d’Ivoire and its descent into hell: 1980 to 2012
Part III: Lessons the Sahel Can Draw from Afghanistan
8. Is the Sahel in the process of turning into a new Afghanistan?
9. Afghanistan—Lesson one: Security cannot be entrusted for long to foreign forces
10. Afghanistan—Lesson two: Aid agencies cannot be left to do as they please
11. Afghanistan—Lesson three: In fragile states, the priority is to build modern, efficient, sovereign institutions
Part IV: What Is to Be Done?
12. Key security lessons for the Sahel drawn from the West’s failure in Afghanistan
13. Other key lessons for the Sahel and donors drawn from the West’s failure in Afghanistan
Conclusion
Epilogue: How the world has changed a lot in some ways and hardly at all in others
Afterword by Jean Marie Guéhenno
Acknowledgements
Index
About the author
Serge Michailof
Review
‘An important and well-written book. Sahelian Africa has the potential to become another Afghanistan and a real nightmare for Europe. It is still avoidable, and this book is a much needed wake-up call.’
— Paul Collier, professor of Economics, University of Oxford
‘Obligatory reading for all who wish to avoid a mega-humanitarian catastrophe, unprecedented refugee flows, and escalating extremist attacks in North America as well as Europe’
— Malcolm Potts, professor of public health, University of California–Berkeley, USA
‘A must read for anyone interested in peace, policy, and taking action to thwart terrorism before it’s too late.’
— Jean-Louis Sarbib, CEO of Development Gateway and former senior vice president at the World Bank
‘An outstanding contribution to the understanding of state fragility by a true practitioner of development.’
— Makhtar Diop, vice president for the Africa Region, the World Bank Group
‘Serge Michailof’s sober analysis should be read.’
— Jean-Marie Guéhenno, President and CEO, International Crisis Group
Serge Michailof
Description
In Africa, progress can be seen across the board. But the important question is whether this so-called progress is sustainable. The continent is a powder keg: the powder is demographics and unemployment the detonator. By 2050, the number of young people of working age in Africa is expected to be three times that of China’s. But will there be enough jobs for them?
What is troubling for the continent is even more dramatic for the Sahel, a huge region of about 100 million inhabitants where insecurity is spreading like a bushfire. Despite major differences in geography and culture, there are huge similarities between the Sahel and Afghanistan: a demographic impasse, stagnating agriculture, widespread rural misery, high unemployment, deep ethnic and religious fault lines, weak states, regional instability, drug trafficking, and the spread of radical Islam. And unfortunately the same recipes that failed in Afghanistan are being rolled out in the Sahel. Are we headed to a ‘Sahelistan’ and to an ‘Africanistan’? Serge Michailof helps us find the answer to this important question.
About the Author
SERGE MICHAILOF has had an exceptional career as a development practitioner across continents. He is now a researcher at the Ferdi Foundation in France.
Table of contents
Foreword by Paul Collier
Preface
Introduction
Part I: Sub-Saharan Africa: The End of Euphoria
1. The new threats to Africa’s stability and growth
2. Programmed demographic explosion in the Sahel?
3. Marginalization and underemployment in rural Africa
4. Will Africa skip the industrial development stage?
Part II: Fragile States in the Eye of the Storm
5. What causes fragility in certain states?
6. Weak institutions weaken fragile states
7. The ignored fragility of Côte d’Ivoire and its descent into hell: 1980 to 2012
Part III: Lessons the Sahel Can Draw from Afghanistan
8. Is the Sahel in the process of turning into a new Afghanistan?
9. Afghanistan—Lesson one: Security cannot be entrusted for long to foreign forces
10. Afghanistan—Lesson two: Aid agencies cannot be left to do as they please
11. Afghanistan—Lesson three: In fragile states, the priority is to build modern, efficient, sovereign institutions
Part IV: What Is to Be Done?
12. Key security lessons for the Sahel drawn from the West’s failure in Afghanistan
13. Other key lessons for the Sahel and donors drawn from the West’s failure in Afghanistan
Conclusion
Epilogue: How the world has changed a lot in some ways and hardly at all in others
Afterword by Jean Marie Guéhenno
Acknowledgements
Index
About the author
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