Revista de estudios de defensa y gestión de recursos

Countering Threat Networks in Nigeria’s Geopolitical Sphere: The Libyan Vacuum, and Cultural Intelligence as a Panacea

Ibili Celestine N

Libya vacuum serves as a safe haven for threat network in the Maghreb down to the Sahel, its geopolitical importance has meant that such instability can be identified as the major causes of the humanitarian crisis in Europe as regards the high level of illegal migrant movement to Europe through the Mediterranean Sea. West African region has had its fair share of the Libyan crisis, which has been the vehicle driving the proliferation of light arms and weapons in the region. 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 who uses Nilo-Sahelian culture as a means of designing force compartmentalization, recruitment. In a nutshell, the importance of cultural intelligence in intelligence gathering and combat outcome is the centerpiece of this research article. The cultural context of threat-network activities is very important in designing counterthreat 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 fourthgeneration warfare.