Leonardo Villalon Lecture. A Perfect Storm: Intersecting Crises in the West African Sahel.

Please join Africana Studies in welcoming, Leonardo Villalon. After decades of struggle to build democratic institutions, the countries of the Sahel—among the least developed on earth—find themselves in the crucible of several intersecting crises. Both domestic regimes and regional alliances are under extreme pressures that have produced a crisis of institutions.  The ongoing challenges posed by extremist religious and other violent groups have created a region-side crisis of security.  And the pressures of climate change on a fragile landscape and in the context of strong demographic growth present a daunting crisis of the environment and livelihoods.  This talk will attempt to make sense of these intersecting crises, and consider ways in which the region and the broader world might confront them.