In an invited commentary published by The New York Times in its “Room for Debate” feature, J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, discusses whether or not Mali is turning into the new Afghanistan.

J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, was interviewed by Jenna Lee on the Fox News Channel’s Happening Now to discuss potential US involvement in the Malian crisis, in light of France's decision to join the fight against the country's Islamist militants.

J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, was interviewed yesterday by Jeffrey Brown on PBS’s NewsHour about the crisis in Mali and France’s military intervention against Islamist insurgents in the West African country.

Rudolph Atallah, senior fellow of the Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, appeared on CTV News to discuss Canada's pledge to send a C-17 aircraft to support French troops in Mali.

French aircraft strafed Islamist rebels in Mali for the third day in a row on Sunday. Additional French troops arrived in the West African country’s capital to shore up its rickety transitional government in the face of an offensive by the militants who seized control of northern provinces last spring and have been imposing their brutal version of shari’a.

J. Peter Pham, director of the Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, joins BBC World News’ Katty Kay to discuss the rise of Islamist militants in Mali.

Rudolph Atallah, senior fellow of the Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, was interviewed by Erin Burnett on CNN's OutFront to discuss US involvement in the war against Islamic militants in northern Mali.

J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, was interviewed by Amanda Blitz and Todd van der Heyden on CTV News Channel’s Afternoon Express in a segment on Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s meeting with the Chairperson of the African Union, President Yayi Boni of Benin, and possible international assistance to an African-led multinational military force to intervene against al-Qaeda-linked militants in Mali.

In the latest in the series of “IntelBriefs” on African security issues being produced by the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center in partnership with the Soufan Group, an international strategic consultancy, Ansari Center Deputy Director Bronwyn Bruton argues that while decentralization is increasingly the norm across Africa, with “almost every country on the continent engaging in local elections and resource sharing, or at least paying lip service to such notions,” the United States and its European allies have been slow to engage with sub-state governance structures, even on security-related concerns where the growing threat from transnational and al-Qaeda-linked terrorist networks add urgency to the need to bolster local authorities.

The Arab Spring underscored the pivotal role that youth can play in a country’s economic and political stability. This is even truer in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 70 percent of the population is under the age of 30.