The Wagner Scramble for Africa: Assessing the Effectiveness of Russian Intervention in the African Sahel
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The Wagner Group is a private military company funded by the Russian state and active in at least twelve countries across four continents. With the group’s activities and aims often shrouded in secrecy, this thesis attempts to uncover more about the group’s operations, as well as its broader role within Russian foreign policy, through a case study of Wagner intervention in the African Sahel. To what extent has the Wagner Group, and by extension, the Russian state, achieved its strategic goals in the African Sahel? To answer this question, this thesis employs a mix of methods, including a geospatial analysis of violent events initiated by the Wagner Group, al-Qaeda-affiliated insurgents, and Islamic State-affiliated insurgents between December 2021 and October 2023 in Burkina Faso and Mali. This thesis also examines relevant qualitative sources, including reports from international and non-governmental organizations, Wagner-funded Hollywood-style movies, and jihadist propaganda statements. Using the information from this geospatial and qualitative analysis, I examine the Wagner Group’s three strategic goals in the Sahel: 1) the group’s counterinsurgency campaign against Islamist insurgents, 2) the group’s pro-Russia soft power campaign against the West, and 3) the group’s resource extraction campaign targeting Mali’s vast supply of gold deposits. I argue that despite the shortcomings of the Wagner Group’s counterinsurgency intervention in Mali, Russia can still benefit immensely from the mineral wealth and reputational uplift that its activities in the Sahel provide. Such benefits, however, are dependent on Russia’s ability to circumvent international sanctions, as well as avoid any unintended consequences from making an enemy out of two of the most influential transnational extremist groups, al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Publication date | May 15, 2024 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Iskandarsjach, Nina |
|---|---|
| Advisor | Patenaude, Bertrand |
Subjects
| Subject | Wagner Group |
|---|---|
| Subject | Islamic State |
| Subject | al-Qaeda |
| Subject | Russia |
| Subject | Mali |
| Subject | Burkina Faso |
| Subject | Niger |
| Subject | Africa > Sahel |
| Subject | Private military companies |
| Subject | Insurgency |
| Subject | Counterinsurgency |
| Subject | Islamic State Sahel Province (IS Sahel) |
| Subject | Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) |
| Subject | Gold mines and mining |
| Subject | Propaganda, Russian |
| Subject | Disinformation |
| Subject | Geospatial data |
| Subject | Civil war |
| Subject | Non-state actors (International relations) |
| Subject | Mixed methods research |
| Subject | Mercenary troops (International law) |
| Genre | Text |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY).
Preferred citation
- Preferred citation
- Iskandarsjach, N. (2024). The Wagner Scramble for Africa: Assessing the Effectiveness of Russian Intervention in the African Sahel. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/ht835yb0407. https://doi.org/10.25740/ht835yb0407.
Collection
Stanford University, Program in International Relations, Honors Theses
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- ninathegreat16@gmail.com
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