Transnational counterterrorism assemblages: the case of preventing and countering violent extremism in Mali

Abstract

This article explores how the threat of terrorism has been addressed at the policy level by offering a fine-grained analysis of a specific preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) project implemented in Mali between 2018 and 2021 by a composite mix of international and national practitioners. Despite the current and almost complete detachment from the international and European security community, Mali has been, for a long time, a critical actor in the construction of what we identify as a transnational counterterrorism assemblage. This paper specifically focuses on three parts of the process leading to the assemblage: (1) the context and the political opportunities behind its creation, (2) how a specific north/south epistemic community of experts and practitioners has emerged in Mali and shaped the cognitive, normative and practical dimensions of the policy field and finally (3) the mechanisms at work in the practice of counterterrorism, from design to implementation on the ground. In doing so, the article contributes to the existing academic debate by problematising received interpretations of P/CVE as a north to south transfer of policy priorities and schemes of action. We show how current P/CVE activities are, rather, defining new social standards and practices of security elaborated at the intersection of the north/south divide. We finally offer some reflections on the unexpected consequences of such a construction in relation to the following national and international political crisis of the country.