Al Qaeda Country: Why Mali is Important–Peter Chilson (Niger 1985-87) will speak at George Washington University in D.C. on Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Al Qaeda Country: Why Mali is Important

Tuesday, January 29, 2013 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

George Washington University
Lindner Family Commons, Room 602
1957 E Street NW Washington DC
RSVP Click Here

Peter Chilson, Associate Professor of English, Washington State University

Introduction by David Rain, Associate Professor of Geography and International Affairs, GW

Prizewinning author Peter Chilson is one of the few Westerners to travel to the Mali conflict zone. There he found a hazy dividing line between the demoralized remnants of the former regime in the south and the new statelet in the north – Azawad – formed when a rebellion by the country’s ethnic Tuareg minority as commandeered by jihadi fighters. In this inaugural lecture of the African Research and Policy Group of the Institute for Global and International Studies, Chilson will lay out the lines of conflicting interest in Mali as some of the world’s great forces take notice. He is the author of the recent book, We Never Knew Exactly Where: Dispatches from the Lost Country of Mali.

Sponsored by Africa Research and Policy Group and the Institute for Global and International Studies and co-hosted by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting