About the Institute
An independent research centre that studies power from its margins, across four regional blocs: the Sahel, the Lake Chad basin, the Sahara and the Red Sea.
The Institute in brief
Founded in 2026, the Institute for Saharan Margins (IMS) is an independent think tank. Its work covers models of governance, local conflict-resolution mechanisms, migration dynamics, the uptake of new technologies, the future of agro-pastoral systems under globalisation, environmental and climate issues, regional security and the political economy of resources, with particular attention to the climate-peace-security nexus.
A public-interest organisation, IMS produces strategic studies and foresight analysis across four regional blocs: the Sahel, the Lake Chad basin, the Sahara and the Red Sea. It informs the public, and trains and advises public and private actors in business, institutional and diplomatic circles.
Committed to intellectual independence and analytical rigour, the Institute works with universities, strategic research centres, public decision-makers and international institutions, to inform, raise awareness of and anticipate the geopolitical, economic, climate and environmental challenges of the Saharan margins.
The Institute publishes in French and English.
What we do
- Strategic studies and foresight analysis across the four regional blocs
- Public information, open access, in French and English
- Training and advisory work for public and private actors
- Work carried out with universities and international institutions
What do we mean by “the Saharan margins”?
The object the Institute took for its name. This brief sets out its definition and what is at stake.
A zone of transition, not a border
The Saharan margins are the zones of ecological, climatic and socio-spatial transition on the periphery of the Sahara: to the north, the pre-desert steppes; to the south, the Sahelian belt. They are not lines of rupture but porous, shifting zones, cut through by a steep aridity gradient. Rainfall is irregular, ecosystems fragile, and landscapes alternate between steppe, shrub savannah and oasis.
Societies built on movement
Nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoralism dominates, alongside localised subsistence farming. These spaces long lived off their position as trading crossroads on the trans-Saharan routes, and remain places of cultural mixing. Urbanisation is recent and rapid, concentrated around water points and road corridors. It runs up against advancing desertification, extreme water stress and the continuing degradation of soils.
A periphery turned epicentre
Far from centres of power, these margins accumulate governance difficulties, intercommunal tensions — particularly between farmers and herders — and the entrenchment of armed groups and trafficking networks. Spaces of transit and periphery, they have become the epicentre of complex security crises: asymmetric conflicts involving non-state armed groups, military operations, militias. The growing scarcity of agro-pastoral resources aggravates intercommunal conflict. Infrastructural isolation, structural poverty and poor access to basic services hold back the economic integration of these regions.
Political marginalisation
These territories suffer political marginalisation relative to state centres of power. The weak presence of the state sustains instability and calls for responses in terms of decentralisation, representation and the political integration of local populations.
Subsoil wealth as a driver of conflict
The subsoil holds strategic extractive resources: gold, uranium, oil. That wealth often turns against the territories that hold it. Formal extraction brings little benefit to local communities and feeds a sense of injustice; artisanal or illegal extraction, artisanal gold mining in particular, funds armed groups and consolidates a cross-border criminal economy.
Produce evidence
Foresight analysis as decision-support tools: the climate-peace-security nexus, clandestine artisanal gold mining, artisanal antimony and diamond extraction and its environmental consequences, climate mobility, sustainable urbanisation, and the valuing of natural ecosystems.
Bring research and decision-making together
Establish a practical framework for collaboration between universities, strategic research centres, public decision-makers and international institutions, to inform, raise awareness of and anticipate the climate and environmental challenges of the Saharan margins.
Four regional blocs, fourteen countries
A tight perimeter, chosen for its coherence: these blocs share flows of people, weapons and resources that ignore administrative borders.
Seven research areas
A broad thematic remit over a deliberately narrow geographical area.
Political regimes & trajectories of power
Structures of power, clan-military realignments, successions and transitions in the states of the region.
Regional security & armed actors
Non-state armed groups, militias, foreign forces, asymmetric conflict and smuggling economies in border areas.
Political economy of resources
Gold, uranium, oil, clandestine artisanal mining, antimony and diamonds: the power relations these resources structure, and the armed-group financing they sustain.
Governance of the margins & conflict resolution
Territorial public policy, decentralisation and political representation, local mechanisms for resolving intercommunal tension.
Climate, environment & agro-pastoral systems
Desertification, water stress, soil degradation, the future of pastoralism under globalisation, and the climate-peace-security nexus that binds them.
Migration, mobility & urbanisation
Migration dynamics, climate mobility, forced displacement, and rapid urbanisation around water points and road corridors.
Strategic studies, technology & foresight
Monitoring, rupture scenarios and the uptake of new technologies, for donors, diplomatic services and companies exposed to the region.
How we work
Our notes draw on three kinds of material. None is sufficient alone, and we always say where our claims come from.
Field network
Contacts based in the region: local administrators, traders, herders, journalists, former combatants. They are the ones who flag a movement before it becomes a press release.
Open sources (OSINT)
Satellite imagery, conflict databases, customs and mining registers, UN panel of experts reports, and humanitarian data from UNHCR, OCHA and the IPC.
Academic literature
Work in political anthropology, the history of Saharan spaces and the sociology of the state, so that no crisis is read as an event without a past.
- Uncorroborated field information is never published as fact.
- Figures are attributed to their source, with its date, rather than repeated as general truths.
- Confidence levels are stated when they are low.
- Errors are corrected on the page itself, with the correction noted.
- The identity of field contacts is protected.
What guarantees our analytical freedom
An institute writing about authoritarian regimes, war economies and foreign interference cannot afford ambiguity about its funding. We apply three simple rules.
No government in the area covered, no political party and no armed actor funds the Institute, directly or through an intermediary. A private mandate buys an analysis, never a conclusion: the client commissioning a confidential note changes neither its content nor its recommendations. Publications in the open-access collection remain entirely in the Institute's hands, whatever commercial relationships exist elsewhere.
Our funding comes from institutional subscriptions, research grants and advisory work. It is set out in detail on the Support page.
Four formats, two collections
The Cahiers du Tibesti bring together open-access output. The Notes du Darfour gather confidential work produced for institutional clients.
Policy brief
The decision-ready digest of a file: diagnosis, headline figures, options for action. Designed to be read in five minutes before a meeting.
Situation note
Analysis of an unfolding sequence, published while it is still useful for acting on.
Report
In-depth investigation of a structuring issue, with original data and mapping.
Working paper
Conceptual work, opened to discussion before journal publication.
Cahiers du Tibesti
Policy briefs, situation notes, reports and working papers, open access, published on this site.
Notes du Darfour
Work produced for institutional subscribers and bespoke mandates, not published on this site.
Team & scientific council
Direction of the Institute
The Institute's direction leads its research work and the editorial direction of its two collections. Publications appear under the Institute's name.
The scientific council is being formed. It will bring together five to eight qualified figures, each attached to one area of the perimeter, responsible for reviewing reports before publication.
Researchers working on these terrains: applications to the scientific council and working-paper proposals are welcome at ims.advisory@afripolitique.com.
Institutional partnerships
The Institute's partner network — universities, research centres and organisations — is being built. This page will be updated as partnerships are concluded.
A hybrid association / company structure
The separation is deliberate: it keeps published research from depending on the order book.
Institute for Saharan Margins
Holds the brand, the website, open-access publications and research grants. This is the Institute's intellectual and academic structure.
IMS Advisory
Invoices private services: confidential notes, briefings and bespoke assignments. This is the Institute's advisory structure.
Details on the Legal notice page.
A specific question about the region?
Institutional subscription, bespoke briefing, confidential note or academic partnership: write to us describing what you need.
Contact us