On September 14, The Washington Post revealed that the United States has quietly opened talks focused on counterterrorism with Mali’s governing junta. Last month, House and Senate delegations visited Bamako. In July, Deputy Assistant Secretary Will Stevens, the State Department’s point man for West Africa, also met Malian officials. A few months earlier, between February 19 and 21, United States Africa Command – the Pentagon’s headquarters for operations across the continent – had staged its first military-to-military engagement in Mali in five years.

These apparent efforts by Washington to woo Mali’s military regime mark a US return to a game where African lives are pawns and power is the prize. Sure, “security” is the buzzword on everyone’s lips, but to anyone paying attention, it is ob

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