Governance and Intervention in Mali

Susanna Wing is Associate Professor of Political Science at Haverford College, USA. She is author of Constructing Democracy in Transitioning Societies of Africa: Constitutionalism and Deliberation in Mali (2008).

• Introduction 1. Democracy, Accountability, and Framing Crises 2. Mali’s Security Traffic Jam 3. Consequences of Intervention 4. Malian Armed Forces, Community-Based Armed Groups, and Religious Leaders 5. Decentralization and Security for Whom? 6. Conclusions

'Within the course of a decade, Mali disintegrated from being the West's posterchild of democratization to a nation engulfed in perennial and deep-seated conflicts. Wing's book advances new and inconvenient insights into the key drivers behind these developments. Focusing on questions of domestic governance and outside interventionism, her book is a key source for conflict scholars, Africanists, development practitioners and anyone trying to make sense of what is happening in the Sahel.'Sebastian Elischer, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Florida, USA'In this book, Susanna Wing masterfully reframes Mali’s security crisis, embedding it into governance failures and democratic disillusions. Relying on her vast experience of the country acquired over several decades, she highlights the fundamental and shattering political disconnect between Bamako and the north, between civil society and other identities, which have produced a pervasive crisis of governance. No sector is neglected, and her analyses of the dynamics associated with aid, security sector assistance, religious actors, and decentralization, are devastating. If you want to know how Mali went from apparently democratic (she calls that democracy a “farce!”) donor darling to failure and widespread insecurity, Wing’s book is sobering but required reading.'Pierre Englebert, H. Russell Smith Professor of International Relations and Professor of Politics, Pomona College, USA