Achieving Peace in Northern Mali
Subtitle: Past Agreements, Local Conflicts, and the Prospects for a Durable Settlement
By: Stephanie Pezard, Michael Shurkin
Contributors: Shurkin, Michael Robert, author; Rand Corporation
Publisher: RAND
Published: 2015
Place of publication: Santa Monica, CA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 107
ISBN-13: 9780833088239
Subjects: Politics and government; History
Description: This report examines the prospects for stabilization in Mali following the political and military crisis that began in 2012. To this end, it examines Mali's peace settlements since the early 1990s to identify flaws and successes. The authors find that five recurrent issues have impeded the implementation of successive accords: the lack of representativeness of the peace-accord signatories; a flawed understanding of decentralization and democracy; the limited perceived legitimacy, in the north, of Bamako; persistent insecurity; and an absence of transitional justice and reconciliation. The report recommends building representativeness through a variety of measures to simultaneously address these issues and help craft a peaceful way forward for Mali. The report also explores whether Mali's neighbor Niger owes its current stability to a more favorable context, shrewd policies, or sheer luck and whether it might offer a model of resilience for Mali. The authors recommend emulating some of the policies that could account for Niger's sustained stability, such as better integration of Tuareg populations and a focus on development programs in addition to security, while recognizing that these do not make Niger impervious to a resurgence of the political turmoil it experienced in the past.
Notes: At head of title: Rand National Defense Research Institute.

Prepared for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Office of African Affairs.

"RR-892-OSD"--Page 4 of cover.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 93-107).
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: A brief history of Mali's rebellions and the implementation of peace accords; title: Explaining the failure of past peace accords; title: Moving forward; title: Is there a Nigerien model of resilience?; title: Conclusion.