West Africa is the Latest Testing Ground for US Military Artificial Intelligence
Published: May 2, 2021
IAMI, NIGER (Africa is a Country) One striking feature of US military involvement in West Africa is the absence of an observable strategic vision for a desired end state. Nominally, US presence in the region’s multilayered conflicts revolves around building “security cooperation” with state partners to improve counterterrorism capabilities, ostensibly providing protection to communities that states cannot. Concurrently, the US military is typically the prime diplomatic entity for high-level bilateral engagements. The result is that the US military is propping up the public authority of weak states, albeit in an ad hoc fashion that lurches from crisis to crisis.Regardless of the reasons for US presence, there is hardly any deep public support for these operations; about 60% of US citizens do not view these kinds of conflicts as a security threat, and more than 90%
West Africa is the Latest Testing Ground for US Military Artificial Intelligence Comments
NIAMI, NIGER (Africa is a Country) One striking feature of US military involvement in West Africa is the absence of an observable strategic vision for a desired end state. Nominally, US presence in the region’s multilayered conflicts revolves around building “security cooperation” with state partners to improve counterterrorism capabilities, ostensibly providing protection to communities that states cannot. Concurrently, the US military is typically the prime diplomatic entity for high-level bilateral engagements. The result is that the US military is propping up the public authority of weak states, albeit in an ad hoc fashion that lurches from crisis to crisis.Regardless of the reasons for US presence, there is hardly any deep public support for these operations; about 60% of US citizens do not view these kinds of conflicts as a security threat
Why the US’s counterterrorism strategy in the Sahel keeps failing
16 Feb 2021
The US alone is not responsible for the negligence and corruption of partners in the Sahel, or for the coups and war crimes US-trained forces have committed. But the US has been training foreign militaries for more than 50 years now, and the pattern of calamity – in the Sahel and beyond – suggests a reevaluation of US security aid is urgently needed. (Photo by Fred Marie/Art In All Of Us/Corbis via Getty Images)
NEWS ANALYSIS
In mid-2011, Matthew Page and his team at the United States Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) began to suspect something was awry in Mali.