COUNTERING THREAT NETWORKS IN NIGERIA’S GEOPOLITICAL SPHERE: the Libyan vacuum, and cultural intelligence as a panacea

   Abstract

 In this article I write that Libya vacuum, created by the instability of the Libyan state serves as safe haven for threat network in the Maghreb down to the Sahel, and that it geopolitical importance has meant that such instability can be identified as the major causes of humanitarian crisis in Europe as regard the high level of illegal migrant movement to Europe through the Mediterranean Sea. Thus West African region are now having it fair share of the Libyan crisis, which has been the vehicle driving the proliferation of light arms and weapons in the region. The article argued that Nigerian Boko haram terror group has been a major beneficiary of the political instability in the region, though the primary cause of the insurgency is principally linked to the political dynamics of the Nigerian state, the Libyan instability serves as a force multiplier in continuum, it has aided in regrouping, recruiting, acquisition of weapon systems, training of terror combatants, and compartmentalization of clandestine cellular serial terror groups. From a national security point of view, it becomes imperative for Nigerian national security decision makers to appraise the challenges posed by the Libyan crisis, and the cultural effect of terror groups, which uses Nilo-Sahelian culture as a means of designing force compartmentalization, and recruitment. In a nutshell, it is argued that the importance of cultural intelligence in intelligence gathering and combat outcome should be the center piece of force deployment in defeating threat network in the northeastern Nigeria, and it gray zone of the Nilo-Saharan cultural overlays. Therefore, the cultural context of threat-network activities is very important in designing counter-threat network operations, as a subset of counter insurgency operation, which by essence is a cultural war. This article concludes that cultural intelligence is imperative at all spectrums of military operations in 21st century fourth generation warfare.