I'm John Batsch who with Caleb Weiss and Bill Rajo, the Foundation for the Defense of

Democracy's Long War Journal, where to follow this story of Africa moving from

moving from democracy of the 20th century

to strong man, Hunter, and being persuaded

to turn away from the fight against the jihadists or the

investigation against the jihadists and turn toward sovereign powers. Russia and China come to mind. Iran is not absent from

Africa but we're right now focusing on Niger with Caleb and I have headlines that are

competitive.

For example,

Niezaire declares American military presence illegal

kicks out U.S. troops, that's four days ago.

Or U.S. withdrawal from Niez Niger signals a shift in Western influence, or what Niger U.S.

rupture says about Russia and West's shaky future in Sahel.

Caleb, we can't clarify whether Niger has asked, kicked out, whatever the verb is.

The U.S. had a listening post and a drone post in Niger outside of the capital.

It has now been asked to stand down.

What does that mean for the pursuit of the jihadists, both ISIS and al-Qaeda in West Africa?

I think this is probably going to be a more nuanced

stance for than what I think a lot of people expect.

Probably not a whole lot.

The US wasn't doing that much to begin with. I mean, they you had

sporadic, you know, some sort of soft, you know, embeds with local forces or providing, you know, ISR readouts, intelligence to French, European

...