Fifty years after it became independent, Mali has still to rely on its former colonial ruler to keep the country intact. But France no longer has the appetite nor the resources to play a colonial role. Hollande is having a hell of a time just attempting to rule his own restive nation.

What does this mean for us? Well, it's both good and bad. It's good because the extreme ideology of the group likely contributed to its downfall in Mali. It's bad because calls for pragmatism -- which would moderate its more severe violence -- may fall short.

France will shortly be engaged in rebuilding Mali, a country twice the size of Texas. Does the U.S. really want to join in another nation-building exercise, in a Muslim country, on a continent where Americans are not welcome?

The disfavor for intervention among American politicians and the public is understandable and a good restraint. But occasionally making a stand against atrocity and extremism, particularly when it's in danger of spreading, is a worthy goal for a great power. Mali just might be the place.

As the world focuses its attention on the conflict in Syria, northern Mali has become the biggest expanse of territory controlled by al Qaeda, which is seeking to establish an autonomous state.

After 14 centuries, Islamist Arabs have once more conquered the Berbers of North Africa. The Sahara is lost again.

Despite formally handing over power on April 12, however, the junta continued to arrest opponents and still wields considerable influence. Scattered fighting between rival armed forces erupted in the capital last week.

BAMAKO, Mali — Under intense pressure from the nations bordering Mali, the junior officer who seized control of the country in a coup last month...

BAMAKO, Mali — The spokesman for a hardline Tuareg rebel group in Mali says that his group is working with Tuareg fighters recently returned fro...

Post-Gaddafi Libyans must reckon with the complexity of their Arab and African identities in order to avoid reproducing the same brand of divisive rule that fractured Libyan society under Gaddafi.

In the September 2011 issue of National Geographic, Peter Gwin accompanies Tuareg rebels on a walk through a remote corner of the world. For years, th...

Now these people live in poverty and in refugee camps, but keep the dream of their own independent state alive. Most Americans do not know anything about them.

With no newspapers, radio or any other means of mass communication, Tinariwen's music captured the soul of the Tamashek rebellion in which they were participating.