Strategic Retrenchment and Great Power Competition in the Sahel. External Actors and the Limits of Security Governance

Abstract

The Sahel has become one of the most prominent theatres of contemporary great power competition, where external actors pursue overlapping and often conflicting security, political, and economic agendas. Over the past decade, the region has witnessed an unprecedented concentration of international interventions, ranging from multilateral peacekeeping missions to bilateral military operations and security assistance programs. Despite this extensive external engagement, security conditions across the Sahel have continued to deteriorate.
This article examines how growing great power competition shapes security governance in fragile regions, using the Sahel as a critical case study. Drawing on the concepts of security governance and strategic retrenchment, the article argues that increasing geopolitical rivalry among external actors, particularly France, the United States, Russia, and China, has contributed to the fragmentation rather than consolidation of security governance arrangements in the region. Rather than enhancing stability, competing external strategies have undermined coordination, weakened multilateral frameworks, and reduced the effectiveness of international interventions.
Empirically, the article analyses the evolution of external engagement in the Sahel, focusing on the withdrawal of Western military forces, the termination of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), and the expanding presence of non-Western actors. The findings suggest that external actors increasingly prioritize risk avoidance, domestic political considerations, and strategic signalling over longterm governance and stabilization objectives.
By situating the Sahel within the broader context of global power shifts, the article contributes to debates on the limits of external intervention and the changing nature of security governance in the Global South. It concludes that strategic retrenchment, rather than sustained engagement or effective substitution by new external actors, has become the dominant pattern shaping security outcomes in the Sahel. These dynamics offer broader insights into the challenges facing fragile regions exposed to intensified geopolitical competition.