The Crime-Terror Assemblage in the Sahel: Analyzing Complexity with a Pragmatic Theoretical Stance

Since the beginning of 2000s, scholars, observers, and analysts working on security and IR are regularly claiming that a crime-terror nexus exists in Sahel. However, the reality in the field is more complicated. I propose to prefer the concept of crime-terror assemblage in Sahel. This concept of assemblage will help to think the different dimensions of the insecurity in Sahel. By combining the critical security studies and the literature of conflict and terrorism studies, we suggest a pragmatic theoretical framework able to grasp the multiple relations between the actors and the complex and fluid environment in Sahel. This assemblage has two levels of analysis. The first one is a functionalist framework considering the relations between different local actors structuring this crime-terror assemblage. The second level will analyze different normative consequences coming with the growing securitization of the region by foreign actors and the importance of organized crime and terrorism in the local and international discourses. The paper will focus mainly in this second level on the adaptation, radicalization and compromises of the populations changing their norms and socio-political practices. Finally, the article addresses the issue of the diffusion of violence by considering effects coming from the two levels of the crime-terror assemblage. The empirical material is based on my fieldwork of 8 months in Mali and Niger between 2016 and 2017 and ongoing exchange and interviews through social media since 2018 with local actors and international experts operating in the Sahel.