Africanistan an Afghanistan in France\u27s Backyard

Since the advent of the global War on Terror, we have seen the growth and spread of many transnational terrorist networks to which the United States, backed by other major powers, has sought to eradicate. For the US., the major enemy was the Taliban and now ISIS. For France, Al Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which operates in North and West Africa, has had growing influence, especially in Mali, which recently faced a military coup and a civil war. In 2013, France launched a military operation in conjunction with the Malian government to topple AQIM forces in the north of the country. Despite the military success, the Al Qaeda group continues to be active and pose a serious threat to the region. In this context, the term “Africanistan” has been coined to create an analogy between the situation of Afghanistan under the Taliban and that of Africa more recently. This paper seeks to analyze what “Africanistan” means for France’s security in the context of rising global terrorism. Trans-Saharan states will be used as a case study in an analysis of French security issues as it relates to international migration stemming from AQIM. Expected findings are that “Africanistan” poses not only a security threat to France, in terms of international immigration, but a terrorist threat as well