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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

Papers

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

Press

Rebooting Italy's Africa Policy: Making the Mattei Plan Work

25 November 2024

Against the backdrop of increasing anti-French rhetoric across parts of Francophone Africa, the relative failure of the counterinsurgency operation in the central Sahel (Operation Barkhane) and diplomatic rifts with several Sahelian countries, Paris has been rethinking its relationship with the continent for several years now. As a former imperial power that has seen its colonial domain in Africa gain independence between 1956 (Morocco-Tunisia) and 1977 (Djibouti), France has invented two successive roles for itself in Africa since 1960, particularly in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa.

Alain ANTIL

Studies

Caravan of camels walking through ochre-colored desert dunes in Mauritania's interior

The integrated territorial approach (ITA). Hopes and limits of local stabilisation in the Sahel

08 July 2024

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the attacks of 11 September 2001, the proliferation of local conflicts and the partitioning of certain states (Yugoslavia, Somalia) have given rise to external interventions, both bilateral and multilateral, in which the military element has been combined with civil action in innovative ways.

François GAULME Alain ANTIL

Memos

Early map of Africa, publisher: Homannianorum H, 1737 Nuremberg (Germany)

After the Failure in the Sahel, Rethinking French Policy in Africa

10 April 2024

Condemnations of French politics have gained momentum in recent years in French-speaking Africa. The grievances are multiple: military interventions, the persistence of the regional currency inherited from colonial time (CFA franc), development aid policy, restrictive visa policy, etc. However, the reasoned criticism against the French policy in Africa has turned into an anti-French diatribe on social networks and in the simplistic rhetoric of neo-Pan-Africanists.

Alain ANTIL Thierry VIRCOULON

Memos

Emmanuel Macron's Trip to Central Africa: A Look Back on a Difficult Diplomatic Exercise

10 May 2023

On February 27, 2023, Emmanuel Macron delivered a speech on French-African relations before traveling to Central Africa to meet with the leaders of four countries: Gabon, Angola, Congo, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This briefing looks back at the key moments of his latest presidential trip and analyzes the limits of this diplomatic exercise.

Lise LESIGNE Alain ANTIL

Studies

© Action Press/Alfonso Jimenez/helloRuby on Shutterstock

China/United States: Europe off Balance

01 April 2023

As French President Emmanuel Macron (accompanied by Ursula von der Leyen) is on a state visit to China, some twenty Ifri researchers decipher the stakes of the U.S./China/Europe strategic triangle.

Thomas GOMART Marc HECKER Alain ANTIL Jérémy BACHELIER Marc-Antoine EYL-MAZZEGA Diana-Paula GHERASIM Marc JULIENNE Tatiana KASTOUÉVA-JEAN Éric-André MARTIN Laurence NARDON Françoise NICOLAS Céline PAJON Alice PANNIER Isabelle SAINT-MEZARD Jean-Loup SAMAAN John SEAMAN Élie TENENBAUM Mathilde VELLIET

Papers

After Mali, what Commitment from Germany in the Sahel?

23 June 2022

Germany, despite the reluctance of its public opinion, is committed to supporting security in the Sahel, notably through its participation in the European Union Training Mission in Mali (EUTM) and recently in Niger, and in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).

Alain ANTIL Paul MAURICE

Relations Between Europe and Africa Seen Through the Franco-German Prism

21 June 2021

The year 2020 was to be a pivotal year for (re)formulating Europe's Africa strategy. Germany and France were committed to strengthening relations between the two continents and to consolidating them at the sixth summit of the African Union and the European Union, which was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alain ANTIL Sina SCHLIMMER

Sahel: The Basis of a Disaster

13 September 2019

With sluggish economies that create few jobs, soaring demographics, international aid often considered as revenue, and a security apparatus unable to protect national territory and its population, are the Sahel states losing control of their own domestic areas?

Alain ANTIL

Articles from Politique Etrangère

The Paradoxical Progression of Democracy in Mauritania

04 June 2019

Mauritania's political system displays certain democratic qualities that go some way to meeting international standards.

Alain ANTIL

Editorials

Sixth Tokyo Conference on African Development (TICAD-VI, 27-28 August 2016, Nairobi, Kenya)

Japan's Revived African Policy

20 June 2017

By organising TICAD (Tokyo International Conference on African Development) for the first time in Africa in August 2016, Japan intended to accelerate and deepen its relationship with the continent.

Alain ANTIL