As part of his tour through four African countries this week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a point of stopping over in Cote d’Ivoire, a country with which both Washington and Paris are seeking to deepen security ties following the collapse of France’s diplomatic relations in other parts of the region.
At the height of enthusiasm for globalization, many policymakers convinced themselves that the benefits of a more connected world would encourage potential spoilers to accept a stable international order. The same complacency was visible in the recent shock over attacks by Yemen’s Houthi movement on merchant shipping in the Red Sea.