| Description |
1 online resource (xiii, 72 pages) |
| Contents |
On sanctuary. Sanctuary and the U.S. Army experience -- Sanctuary in the 20th century -- Sanctuary, Islam, and Africa -- Sanctuary and governance -- Terrain : geographic and human characteristics of Saharan sanctuary. Geographic terrain -- Human terrain -- Sanctuary seekers in the Sahara. Sanctuary as protection -- Sanctuary for training and planning -- The logistics of Saharan sanctuary -- The financing of Saharan sanctuary -- Denial of sanctuary : ends, ways, and means. Denial of sanctuary : ends in controlling Saharan sanctuary -- Denial of sanctuary : ways for controlling Saharan sanctuary -- Denial of sanctuary : means for controlling Saharan sanctuary and the U.S. Army -- Conclusion |
| Summary |
"The idea to deny sanctuary to terrorist groups lies at the heart of contemporary U.S. counterterrorism strategy. Violent extremist organizations in North Africa, most notably the group al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), have used remote and sparsely populated areas in the Sahara for protection from security forces to perform a range of activities such as training, planning, and logistics in order to conduct terrorist operations like kidnapping, murder, and bombing. Even after 16 years since the September 11 attacks and the resources dedicated to efforts to deny sanctuary, the concept of sanctuary remains largely unexplored. To deny sanctuary requires an understanding of what sanctuary is as an object and how sanctuary is used by terrorist organizations. This monograph proposes a functional understanding of sanctuary and offers fresh ideas to control sanctuary using a detailed case study of the most notorious of the North African terrorists, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, from his arrival to Mali in the late 1990s until the French intervention in early 2012. This multi-disciplinary inquiry utilizes a wide range of open-source documents as well as anthropological, sociological, and political science research, including interviews with one-time Belmokhtar hostage, Ambassador Robert Fowler, in order to construct a picture of what a day in the life of sanctuary-seeking terrorists is like. Belmokhtar and other violent groups remain active and at large in the Sahara in spite of a large French military presence, a small U.S. military presence, and local security forces conducting counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations. Additionally, the Islamic State movement could be viewed as the emergence of mega sanctuaries for terrorists and other violent extremist organizations. These threats require a new strategy to isolate, contain, or defeat terrorists and violent extremists in their sanctuary areas"--Publisher's web site |
| Notes |
"November 2017." |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 57-72) |
| Notes |
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (SSI, viewed December 4, 2017) |
| Subject |
Asylum, Right of.
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Terrorism -- Sahara
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Terrorists -- Protection -- Sahara
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Terrorism -- Sahara -- Prevention
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Asylum, Right of.
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Terrorism.
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Terrorism -- Prevention.
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Sahara.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| Author |
Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute, issuing body.
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Army War College (U.S.). Press, publisher.
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