Russia Has Big Plans for Africa

America Must Push Back—Without Getting Dragged In

The day after the military staged a coup in Burkina Faso in January, supporters of the new regime took to the streets waving Russian flags. The scene may sound like a throwback to the Cold War, when the United States and the Soviet Union competed for influence in Africa, but the demonstrators were taken with more recent examples of the Kremlin’s actions on the continent. They spoke approvingly about Russia’s deployment of mercenaries in Libya, Mali, and the Central African Republic (CAR) to fight off Islamist insurgents. “The Russians got good results in other African countries,” a supporter of the coup told The New York Times. “We hope they can do the same here.” According to the Daily Beast, the lieutenant colonel who led the coup, Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, had tried and failed to get the incumbent president to invite in Russian military contractors to counter threats to the government—and now that he is in charge, he may well ask Moscow for military help.

Putin Cannot Erase Ukraine

No Russian Invasion Can Undo Ukrainian Nationhood

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made no secret of how he regards Ukraine, the nation he is threatening to invade. At the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, Putin told U.S. President George W. Bush that the former Soviet state “is not even a country.” The Russian president believes the Ukrainians and the Russians are one people. It follows that Ukrainians cannot reject being part of Russia and any “anti-Russian” sentiment in Ukraine must be the result of Western meddling rather than a reflection of the preferences of Ukrainians. Putin has used this argument to characterize peaceful political mobilization in Ukraine as foreign-orchestrated coups. He also dismisses polls showing that Ukrainians now favor European Union and NATO accession over membership in Russian-led political and economic organizations.

China Developing ‘Brain Control Weapons’ For Future Wars

It sounds like something that came out of a sci-fi movie, but Brain control weapons are slowly coming to life through Chinese research and the development of biotechnology that can disorient enemies and make them easier to subdue. These types of weapons can potentially change the way we traditionally think about warfare in the future, where enemies could have an influence on a soldier’s cognitive functions.

Nigeria: France, Nigeria Collaborate to Contain Terrorism, Piracy

The France government, yesterday, pledged to collaborate with Nigeria in a renewed bid by both countries to contain terrorism and piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.

France made the pledge as the Minister of Defence, Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi (rtd), sought more proactive intelligence gathering mechanism and technological support to drive new information sharing regime in aid of the military campaigns in the country.

Le changement climatique et la sécurité en Afrique

L’Afrique subit les effets du changement climatique les plus importants de toute région du monde. De canicules plus fréquentes et plus longues, aux sècheresses, inondations et cyclones, ces phénomènes ont déjà touché des millions d’Africains et menacé leurs moyens de subsistance.