Mauritania’s Successes against Al Qaeda Compared to the West’s Challenges: Options Generation for a More Realistic Future

Abstract

America has struggled over the last 15 years in stemming the growth of jihadist violence across the Western Sahel. The region is today one of the world’s most poorly governed and most violent; despite billions of dollars spent by the United States, France, and their European allies. The West’s military campaign centered around an SOF-centric enduring counterterrorism approach has failed. It is this thesis’ assessment that there are several reasons for this failure, but principally SOF (Special Operations Forces) is too focused on building elite counterterrorism partners, is not mobile and flexible enough to be effective, and lost regional expertise required to be effective in an environment as complex as the Sahel. In one example, due to its heavy focus on Afghanistan and Iraq for almost 14 years, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), the American Special Forces Group designated for African operations, atrophied many of its African-centric skills such as French language, long range patrolling, desert mobility, and Sahelian cultural awareness. Since the 3rd Special Forces Group’s return to the Sahel in 2016 violence in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger has soared. 3rd Special Forces Group’s return to the Sahel is NOT the proximate cause of that spike, other factors are at play and the Sahel is an economy of force operation for the United States. But, it is important to look at how USSOF could be more effective in future operations. One indigenous actor has reversed regional terrorism trendlines with minimal western input. Mauritania has effectively thwarted all Al Qaeda-linked terrorist attacks since 2011. It is this thesis’ assertion that USSOF must look to both pre-9/11 and indigenous operational models for future success in West Africa. The Mauritanian model, while imperfect, is the most effective regional security design implemented to date. It is imperative that America seeks new strategies as the region continues to be challenged by the expansion of violent extremist organizations, hammered environmentally and economically, and is increasingly becoming the contest ground for strategic competition between democratic and authoritarian states.