According to The Washington Post, jihadi groups with ties to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) are working together to gain control of a large part of the Sahel, the border region between the Sahara and the better-watered pasture and agricultural lands to the south. The story’s sources are identified as U.S. and local officials on the ground. “What we’ve seen is not just random acts of violence under a terrorist banner,” says Brigadier General Dagvin Anderson, head of U.S. Special Operations in Africa. “But a deliberate campaign that is trying to bring these various groups under a common cause.

This post is coauthored by Laurie Trautman, the director of the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University, and a global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center; and Edward Alden, …

Earlier this spring, the Stanley Foundation and the University of Pretoria jointly sponsored a dialogue on South Africa-United States cooperation. Sixteen participants (including myself) from South A…

A peace process with the Taliban is almost certainly the best way to end the war in Afghanistan, and arguments for postponing efforts to get one underway overlook the costs of prolonging the conflict…