The 2023 Nigerien Coup: Lessons from the Failure of International Relations
The coup that took the West completely by surprise: with over hundreds of millions of dollars in aid invested and thousands of military personnel from the USA, France and the EU deployed, American diplomats had described Niger as “imperfect”, but “more stable than others in the region”.
Mere hours after that statement, the Nigerien presidential guard would overthrow democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum. This may just be the coup that tips West Africa into war and cements the Sahel region’s epithet — the ‘Coup Belt’. What does this mean for Niger? How did the West get blindsided? But more importantly, what insights have the coup revealed about the importance of nation-building, and the failure of international relations? The IAS Gazette finds out.
