As the preparations for the May 2016 United Nations General Assembly’s high-level debate on peace and security intensify, prevention seems to be on everyone’s lips. The three 2015 UN global peace and security reviews that frame the debate have conveyed a common message: that the political instruments, tools, and mechanisms the world body deploys to address violent conflict all attest to the failure of early prevention. All three reports, not surprisingly, recommended a greater focus on prevention. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in his follow-on report on the recommendations of one of these reviews, by the High Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations (HIPPO), wholeheartedly endorsed this.

Over the past ten years, various efforts have been carried out to eradicate the strongly armed radical groups roaming throughout the Sahel Sahara region. Ignoring international boundaries, while confronting national armies, these groups are still operating in the region while governments’ responses have evolved from purely national to regional and to international for the last few years. At the same time, the radical groups’ resilience has brought in new thinking including a few unorthodox views.

Today, three years after the French military intervention in Mali, and the massive deployment of sub regional, regional and international organizations, no one is able to predict the future of Mali. In reality, the daunting question facing the international community, is to know how to withdraw without the collapse of the whole edifice?