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Book about Wagner PMC
Russia’s Wagner PMC (Wagner Group):
Establishment, purpose, profile and historic relevance worldwide
> Autors: Besenyö, Janos – Türke, András István – Szénási, Endre
> Publisher: Helion
> EUVI/ CERPESC Contribution: Wagner PMC in Africa
> COMING SOON (Spring 2024)
The Wagner Group is symbolic of Russia’s deployment of private military companies (PMCs) to exercise influence in Africa, the Middle East and Europe since the mid-2010s. Nominally an independent commercial enterprise, but actually operating on behalf of the Russian government, and in close cooperation with the Ministry of Defence and its Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), and the Federal Security Service (FSB), it has been deployed to perform a very wide range of military and paramilitary tasks, provide security, and collect intelligence.
Through much of its existence, the activity of the Wagner Group appears to have been clandestine and poorly recorded. In practice, the operating principles of this PMC have been very similar to those of numerous similar enterprises from the West.
Since its failed coup attempt in the summer of 2023, the fate of the Wagner Group appears to be sealed. Indeed, presently, it is highly unlikely that a Russian PMC might ever again have the same power and influence that Wagner once wielded. However, this does not mean that such all such enterprises have been completely disbanded: only that the Wagner Group has not (yet) been replaced by some other enterprise – whether Russian or foreign. In fact, we are witnessing a recurrent trend that is likely to become even more characteristic for conflicts in the coming decades as almost everybody who can afford to pay for the services of a PMC is hiring them. Indeed, numerous governments in control of relatively weak or disloyal armed forces have concluded that the deployment of a PMC holds significant advantages.
This two-part works examines the predecessors to the Wagner Group, and the establishment of the latter organisation by Yevgeny Prigozhin, its activities in a number of conflicts around the world, and its armed mutiny against the top leadership of the Russian Federation. It is thoroughly illustrated with authentic photographs and custom commissioned colour illustrations and maps.
(Helion)
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EUNAVFOR ASPIDES : From the Red Sea to the Gulf
19/02/2024: The European Union launched a naval mission (Aspides = Protektor in Greek) to protect commercial vessels in the Red Sea from attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Since late 2023, as a result of Houthi attacks on maritime shipping, maritime security in the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Gulf has significantly degraded. The deterioration of the maritime security in the Red Sea has disrupted a key geopolitical area for international shipping. This affects negatively the EU as well as the wider international community.
Operation ASPIDES will contribute to restore and safeguard freedom of navigation, for the sake of the EU, the region, and the wider international community.
EUNAVFOR OPERATION ASPIDES, within its purely defensive mandate, will protect shipping targeted by attacks at sea or air. It will not conduct strikes on land. ASPIDES will act in line with the UN Security Council Resolution 2722, which demands the cessation of Houthis’ attacks on merchant and commercial vessels, and recognises the right to defend vessels against such attacks, in line with international law. Building upon the Strategic Compass for Security and Defence, ASPIDES consolidates the EU’s capacity to respond rapidly to a global crisis, in cooperation with like-minded international partners, while reinforcing the strategic autonomy of the EU.
The force commander Stefano Constantino was former tactical commander of the Operation AGENOR operation in the Strait of Hormuz from 6 July 2022 to January 2023. AGENOR was the military component of the European led Maritime Awareness in the Strait of Hormuz (EMASoH) established at the beginning of 2020 by the governments of Denmark, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal (to which was recently added also Norway) in order to guarantee the safety of navigation in an area of operation centered on the Strait of Hormuz and extended northwards to the entire Gulf and southwards to the area of the Indian Ocean located along the Omani coasts.
Last year, Constantino held the position of tactical commander at sea of Operation Safe Mediterranean (OSM), in a portion of the Mediterranean that goes from the west of Sardinia to include its entire central and eastern part.
Among the tasks of Operation Safe Mediterranean stand out the defense of maritime communication lines, the monitoring and protection of the national, merchant and fishing fleets, the increase in surveillance and the protection of the dense network of strategic underwater infrastructures that run on the seabed around the Peninsula, such as telephone and data transfer cables, electricity lines and gas pipelines. International, inter-ministerial cooperation and synergy in the field of maritime security with the countries bordering the Mediterranean complete the picture of the activities carried out by this important Operation to defend the free use of the sea.
OHQ: EU multunationalisable HQ, Larissa (Greece)
Staff:
– OHQ: 130
– FHQ embarked on a Frigate: 30
Operation Area : From the Red Sea to the Gulf and a large part of the North-West Indian Ocean
Assets: 4 frigates + 1 aerial asset
Budget: €8 million
Participating States: Greece, France, Italy, Germany
Force commander: Rear Admiral Stefano Costantino (IT)
D-day: 19 February 2024
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Adaptive Hussars 2023
Joint NATO Military Exercice in Hungary: In November 2023, under the name ADAPTIVE HUSSARS 2023, the Hungarian Defence Forces are going to hold a multinational domestic military exercise with the participation of NATO forces in order to test the defence capabilities of the country. The objective of the exercise is to test the military’s readiness for and response to an imagined situation threatening Hungary’s security.
The Hungarian Defence Forces will be carrying out military operations on several spots around the country, with the objective of strengthening cooperation between the HDF and the civilian public administration.
This is the Largest Military Exercise in Hungary in 30 Years, the population must be advised that in the framework of this multinational exercise, increased military traffic will be moving on major and minor roads at several places in Hungary between 2 and 26 November.
Adaptive Hussars 23 involves around 5,000 Hungarian troops, including 500 reservists.
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New CERPESC site 2023
The new site of CERPESC started to be developed! The old site remain available here
———————————————————————————
03/03/2023
Updated page : Burkina Faso
27/12/2021
New pages : Rwanda and Burundi
03/04/2018
Updated page : Trade Policy
30/11/2017
Nouvelle série : Les Manuels du CERPESC
More news→ (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-40360849-1', 'visuart.eu'); ga('send', 'pageview');
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Book about North Africa and the Sahel Region
Terrorism and Political Contention in North Africa and the Sahel Region
> Editors: János Besenyő, Leonid Issaev, & Andrey Korotayev
> Publisher: Springer
> COMING SOON (2023)
The book analyzes factors of political contention in North Africa and the Sahel after the Arab Spring. The sharp increase in the terrorist activity in the Sahel after the Arab Spring led to serious destabilization, as well as the emergence of new and re-actualization of old conflicts in the region. A number of terrorist groups have emerged and/or intensified their activities, including ones associated with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (AQIM, DNIM, ISGS, ISWAP, etc.). In a number of cases, full-scale Islamists insurgencies emerged and provoked increased external interference in the affairs of the region. The aforementioned processes led to the fact that the position of some of the great powers and countries present in North Africa and the Sahel region weakened or even strengthened, so they had to re-evaluate their previous policies. The effect of this is even less visible now, but in the long term it will clearly affect the security of the region and the processes taking place there. This is also true for the current Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the effects of which are already visible in the countries of the African continent and whose impact on the security of the region will entail serious challenges. The book proposes to analyze and generalize organization forms and dynamics of the terrorism and conflict in North Africa and the Sahel region.
EUVI/CERPESC contributions :
(5) “Chasse gardée » or « faubourg »?: Politico-Military Interventions of France in the Sahel Region
(Andras Istvan Türke – Europa Varietas Institute, Switzerland and African Research Institute of Óbuda University, Budapest)
Abstract
On September 11, 2006 Ayman Al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s number two announced that France is as much their enemies as the USA and the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat has become France`s number one enemy in the field of terrorism. In the Sahel region, France increased its presence after 2008 with counter-terrorist operations against jihadist organizations. The operations of special commandos were followed and accompanied by specific intervention operations. The Libyan intervention and the disintegration of Libya (2011) had a drastic domino effect. States are disintegrating, jihadist organizations (based on historical precedents from the 19th century) are multiplying and strengthening, and in many cases, they also perform state functions and are increasingly popular among the local population. With the weakening and elimination of state factors, the local legal bases for the fight against jihadist terrorist organizations have disappeared. The chapter focuses on French interventions in the Sahel region, especially on the relations with Chad, on the operations in the “peripheral regions” (in Mauritania, Djibouti and Somalia) and finally on today`s French anti-jihadist operations and their geopolitical context, with particular attention to the Task Force Sabre, Serval and Barkhane operations.
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Livre sur l`Afrique francophone
Frankofón Afrika (Afrique francophone) (HU)
> Editeur: CUF Szeged
> Rédacteur-en-chef: Brucker, Balázs – Kruzslicz, Péter
> Parution prévue: octobre 2023
Contribution de l`Institut Europa Varietas (CERPESC):
Türke, Andras Istvan:
A CEDEAO (Nyugat-afrikai Államok Gazdasági Közössége) a nyugat-afrikai integrációs törekvések tükrében
La CEDEAO de l`aspect de l`intégration de l`Afrique occidentale
Türke, Andras Istvan:
Az afrikai Nagy tavak térségének frankofón államai – A Kongói Demokratikus Köztársaság, Ruanda és Burundi
Les Etats de la région des grands lacs en Afrique – L`histoire contemporaine de la République Démocratique du Congo, du Rwanda et du Burundi
(Illustration: Tiffet; Source: https://www.ledevoir.com/societe/686892/nous-sommes-321-millions-de-francophones-dans-le-monde)
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EU finance Rwanda`s troop in Capo Delgado (Mozambique)
The intervention by 3,000 Rwandan soldiers and police officers was partly financed by the European Peace Facility, a mechanism that enables it to “support partners in the fields of defense in order to prevent conflicts and strengthen international security.”
The Rwandan military benefited from assistance worth €20 million, intended particularly for the transport of troops and the purchase of equipment (tents, vehicles, generators, and so on).
Since 2021 Rwanda Security Forces were deployed to fight terrorists, there base is in Mocimboa da Praia.
“In 2018, a contingent of 160-300 people of Wagner PMC arrived in Mozembique to help fight against jihadists (Al Shabab, 1 500 – 4 000 people) settled in the northern part of the country, who were posing a threat for the Cabo Delgado gas fields. Fighting alongside the 12 000-strong Mozambican Army, Wagner was given the Nacala base in August 2019. President Filipe Nyusi and Putin signed a bilateral defence agreement. Nevertheless, the Wagner Group finally left the country in May 2020 because it suffered very serious losses. ” (See more details)
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