From Paris to Moscow: Burkina Faso’s strategic realignment and the rise of the Alliance of the Sahel States

This article analyzes Burkina Faso’s security architecture transformation through the theoretical lenses of Authoritarian Conflict Management (ACM) and alliance theory. Drawing on the case of Burkina Faso, it demonstrates how the military government under Ibrahim Traoré leverages external partnerships and the establishment of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) to pursue a dual strategy: the restoration of territorial sovereignty and the stabilization of military rule. In this strategic calculus, the stabilization of military rule functions as the operational prerequisite for the restoration of territorial sovereignty.This study illustrates how the interplay of anti-colonial narratives, Russian information warfare, and the militarization of civil society creates new spaces of delegated sovereignty. In Burkina Faso a post-Western security order is emerging, typical for other countries in the Sahel, redefining not only regional dynamics but also global geopolitical competition in Africa.