ABSTRACT
As has been the case all too often in its modern history, how the African continent related to recent global terrorism and counterterrorism trends was determined by an exogenous event. Before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, by al-Qaeda on the United States, Africa seemed destined to remain at best peripheral to the strategic landscape, at least as most American policymakers perceived it (Pham 2011c). In the wake of 9/11, however, came a newfound appreciation of Africa’s strategic relevance by many of the very same actors, now convinced that the continent was a “frontline” in the freshly declared “Global War on Terror” (Pham 2007a).
