The workshop and its objectives

On 14 October 2016, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) hosted a workshop to examine the security situation in North Africa and the Sahara-Sahel region. Organised under the CSIS Academic Outreach (AO) program, the event sought to foster a greater understanding of threats arising from transnational jihadist groups operating through the region against Western interests.

Held under the Chatham House rule, the workshop was designed around the work of several researchers from North America, the Middle East and Europe. The event explored the local roots of groups like Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and the dynamics influencing the threat they pose. It examined the jihadists’ relationship with local insurgencies and links to illicit cross-border trafficking, as well as their potential near-term prospects. The workshop also featured presentations on Daesh’s emergence and potential to expand in Libya. The papers presented at the event form the basis of this report. The entirety of this report reflects the views of those independent experts, not those of CSIS.

The AO program at CSIS, established in 2008, aims to promote a dialogue between intelligence practitioners and leading specialists from a wide variety of disciplines and cultural backgrounds working in universities, think-tanks, business and other research institutions in Canada and abroad. It may be that some of our interlocutors hold ideas or promote findings that conflict with the views and analysis of the Service, but it is for this specific reason that there is value to engage in this kind of conversation.