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Prénom de l'expert

Alain

Nom de l'expert

ANTIL

Researcher and Head of the Sub-Saharan Africa Center, Ifri

Research Areas:

Mauritania, Sahel, West Africa
Social and political issues
Security and terrorism, traffics

Sub-Saharan Africa Center

KAMPALA, UGANDA - SEPTEMBER 28, 2012. A look at life on the side streets of Kampala, Uganda

Governing the Urban Transition in Africa

Alain Antil is a researcher and director of Ifri's Sub-Saharan Africa Center. He is a lecturer at Paris 1 Sorbonne's masters in geopolitics and at IEP Lille's master's on Peace, Humanitarian Action and Development. He obtained his doctoral thesis in political geography at the University of Rouen. He was notably a researcher at the Laboratory for the Study of the Development of Arid Regions (Rouen University) at IRIS and an external collaborator of the International Crisis Group (ICG).

His research initially focused on the importation of the State and exogenous political modes in Africa, particularly in Mauritania. Since the end of the 2000s, he has been interested in security issues in the Sahel region. He first focused on trafficking and its impacts on the political field and on insecurity, then on the root causes of conflict in the Sahel. Today he works on the evolution of the presence of Sahelian states in their territory as well as, more broadly, on the geopolitical recompositions at work south of the Sahara.

Flagship Publications

June 2022

After Mali, what Commitment from Germany in the Sahel?

Working Visit of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Niger, May 23, 2022

Alain ANTIL Paul MAURICE

Études

June 2023

Thématiques, acteurs et fonctions du discours anti-français en Afrique francophone

Manifestation anti-française à Bamako, 10 janvier 2020

Alain ANTIL Thierry VIRCOULON François GIOVALUCCHI

Support independent French research

Ifri, a foundation recognized as being of public utility, relies largely on private donors – companies and individuals – to guarantee its sustainability and intellectual independence. Through their funding, donors help maintain the Institute's position among the world's leading think tanks. By benefiting from an internationally recognized network and expertise, donors refine their understanding of geopolitical risk and its consequences on global politics and the economy. In 2024, Ifri will support more than 70 French and foreign companies and organizations.

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Analysis from Alain ANTIL

Publications

The faded star of President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz

03 May 2016

The Mauritanian President, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, was elected in 2009. The architect of two successful coups: in 2005 against President Maaouya Ould Sid’Ahmed Taya, and in 2008 against President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdellahi, nowadays he is in his second and last term of office according to the Mauritanian constitution. He is viewed by the country's partners as one of the key figures in the stability of the Sahel. However, the international community does not see, or pretends not to see, the weakening of his regime.

Alain ANTIL

Understanding African Migrations

02 March 2016

Movements of African people, being within their countries, on the continent or heading Europe, have numerous and ancient causes. The term “migration” covers a plurality of situations with many internal as well as international implications. Therefore, reasons to migrate deserve a careful analysis. One cannot tackle such a phenomenon through mere border control policies or their externalization, as the European Union seems inclined to do.

Alain ANTIL Christophe BERTOSSI Victor MAGNANI Matthieu TARDIS

Papers

The Mining Boom in the Sahel Region: Will the Development Last?

24 February 2014

The Sahel, often discussed on account of its problems and crises – in particular recently, in view of the crisis in Mali – is in actual fact experiencing a new positive economic era, like the rest of the African continent. For the five countries of the Sahel region we shall be examining – Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – this favourable evolution, although it varies from country to country, is based on booming extractive industries.

Alain ANTIL

Editorials

The intervention in Mali: Weimar Triangle Analyses: French, Polish and German viewpoints on European questions

28 March 2013

On an initiative of the German Council of Foreign Relations (DGAP), the Study Committee for Franco-German Relations (Cerfa) of the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) and the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM) are regularly publishing short contributions on a common subject, written by three experts of these institutes. The purpose of these “Weimar Triangle Analyses” is to give the French, Polish and German views on central questions of European politics and European integration.

Alain ANTIL Kacper REKAWEK Cornelius VOGT

Papers

Involving ʺNeo-Urbansʺ in the Political Game: The Example of Senegal

22 December 2010

A paper brought out last year treating the “Hunger Riots had made it possible, among other things, to point out the extreme difficulties encountered by the authorities in power when trying to control urban populations. Current demographic forecasts relating to sub-Saharan Africa all predict an extremely rapid increase in population and at the same time an even more dramatic rise in the size of urban populations.

Alain ANTIL

Papers

Morocco and its "New Border". A Critical Lecture of Morocco's Economic African Strategy

24 June 2010

Since Mohammed VI came into power, Morocco’s African policy has undergone notable change in comparison to his predecessor’s period.

Alain ANTIL

Papers

Controlling Trafficking or Losing the North : Notes on Trafficking in Mauritania

24 June 2010

Our interest in this topic stems both from our annual visits to Mauritania which started fifteen years ago, and the tiny amount of research noticed on trafficking in this country.

Alain ANTIL

Papers

"Hunger Riots" in Senegal: A Pointer to the Current Governance Failure

28 February 2010

"Hunger riots", a stock phrase used to describe protests at the end of 2007 / beginning 2008 in around thirty countries world-wide, mostly African States, places different phenomena into one group. In this paper, we will focus on the case of Senegal, a country in which "Hunger riots" were numerous.

Alain ANTIL

Papers