The confederation of Sahel States (CSS): A Geopolitical with Multiple Challenges

Abstract

Taking a reflective geopolitical perspective, this article has two objectives: firstly, to use geopolitical and geoeconomic analysis to show how the Sahel region has become a field of regional and even international rivalery between different actors seeking to extend their influence over this part of African continent. Secondly, it consists of first questioning the vital issues that this region represents for Morocco, given the two geostrategic initiatives that the kingdom has launched: Africa-Atlantic and its complement, the mega gas pipeline project linking Nigera to Morocco. Secondly, it aims to show how the young Confederation of Sahelian States could benefit from this, in the wake of its withdrawal from ECOWAS, to escape the trap of poverty and the vagaries of insecurity and terrorism that plague the area. In this vision, the Sahel-Atlantic dynamic of opening up the Sahelian countries by linking them to the global system of international maritime trade flows is proving to be not only an innovative vector for socieconomic development and South-South partnership, but also a lever for political stabilization and security throughout the Sahel-Saharan sphere. Its, in effect, the prelude to a new geopolitical configuration based on the appeasement of conflicts, the opening up of the Sahel to the world, and its economic inclusion.