Description
The recent revival of a Global Power Competition has not only reshaped the balance of power between larger states but also contributed to reconfiguring the power relations between multilateral organizations and host states. This competitive international environment has provided states facing armed conflict new alternatives of security assistance from a wide range of bi- and multilateral actors, especially in Africa. Yet, research has so far only provided limited analysis of host states’ agency in reshaping international interventions to their own interests. This article contributes to this undertheorized field by exploring how the transitional authorities in Mali decided upon and dictated the terms of the forced withdrawal of UN’s peacekeeping mission MINUSMA in 2023. Through in-depth interviews with key actors involved in the withdrawal process it identifies how the Malian regime shaped the UN’s exit by 1) demanding an immediate exit; 2) imposing a timeline of unprecedented brevity; 3) putting restrictions on mobility; and 4) contributing to a deteriorating security context by launching a new offensive in the North. The article argues that the regime was able to do this in part due to support from a new, non-Western actor: Russia, and in part to UN’s weak negotiation position because of the precipitant decline of multilateralism, both factors attributed to the Global Power Competition.
