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Lots of reports circulating of a coup being underway in Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). The disinformation is being propagated by the same Russian-sponsored accounts who have been spreading fake news about the charlatan who is Ibrahim Traore

ICYMI, read my latest with Curtis Bell in Foreign Policy foreignpolicy.com/2025/05/19/ame…

"If Americans believe in peace and security, they should believe in the United States Institute of Peace....We support American values abroad, which are a belief that peace is cheaper than wars and more effective than fighting." npr.org/2025/05/19/g-s…

“For love of country they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue.” – James A. Garfield, May 30, 1868, Arlington National Cemetery

Russian Mercenary and Paramilitary Groups in Africa: Examining Changes and Impacts Since the Wagner Rebellion rand.org/pubs/research_… via RAND

What happened to Wagner Group? SWJ’s latest subject bibliography tracks Wagner’s evolution into Africa Corps. Your essential reading list on mercenaries & modern irregular warfare: 🔗 smallwarsjournal.com/2025/06/06/wag… #WagnerGroup #AfricaCorps #SWJ

🇲🇱🇷🇺| Wagner announces the end of their operations in Mali. Africa Corps officially takes over.

From a Wagner source: "the Malian military were mostly against this, or at least the military guys we interact with." I think it's fair to say here that most of the push came from the Russian MoD

Just to emphasize, this does not mean a withdrawal of Russian support, quite the opposite, in fact. We will see a push in assistance through the Africa Corps: more military equipment, more troops, at a critical moment in the Sahel, where jihadist movements are on the rise.

If US advising stops emphasizing human rights and HOW insurgents are fought, it changes the US model of COIN and negates a bunch of scholarship on COIN COIN assistance will increasingly look like Russias... give the partner guns, let them scorch earth buff.ly/8Na1fq5

The Real Legal Limits on Domestic Military Deployments | Lawfare lawfaremedia.org/article/the-re…

In case it wasn't clear enough that Wagner leaving Mali is not the same as Russian disengagement:

After years spent quietly gaining strength, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin is now the most well-armed militant force in West Africa. No one knows when its fighters will strike next — or where they plan to stop. wapo.st/43D8uV2

Nice piece from FRANKY 🇺🇸🪖🛩️ 👊🇺🇸🔥 and James P. Micciche. TL/DR - Adapt or lose....and adapt now: DoD 3.0: Rebooting the Pentagon for the Next War mwi.westpoint.edu/dod-3-0-reboot… via Modern War Institute

🔴 NEW INVESTIGATION — Torture and Forced Disappearances: Inside Wagner’s Secret Prisons in Mali 🧵 (1/5) Since 2021, Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group have tortured civilians in secret detention sites across Mali — former UN bases and military camps shared with the

China will negotiate and sign a new economic pact with Africa that will get rid of all tariffs on the 53 African states it has diplomatic ties with, it said, a move that could benefit middle-income nations. reuters.com/world/africa/c…

🏆 Last week we awarded our annual £500 prize for the best Loop blog piece in the previous calendar year, as judged by an independent jury. 📝 Managing Editor Kate Hawkins presents the longlisted articles — and reveals the very special winner. ow.ly/mii350W8Q0e

A 2025 version of Why strategic intelligence analysis has limited influence on American foreign policy tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

Yes b/c as we said after that sentence: “It would, however, involve a catalog of risks, and potentially trigger a counterescalation by Moscow.” Andrew Stigler and I might qualify some elements in the piece now 3 years later but the necessity to enforce a no-fly zone remains

👏 Congratulations to Marcel Plichta & Christopher Faulkner who made the Loop Best Blog 2024 longlist for the article 'Russia’s mercenaries are bolstering autocratic regimes in the Sahel', from our ♟️#AutocraciesWithAdjectives series. ow.ly/bgru50W3qzj