Earlier this month, the government of Niger revoked its military cooperation agreement with the United States and demanded the withdrawal of approximately 1,000 U.S. military personnel from the West African nation. Washington is currently negotiating with the Nigerien junta, which came to power in a July coup, to keep a contingent of troops in place, perhaps at a lower level.
That is a bad idea, however, on the part of the Biden administration. Instead of trying to stay, the United States needs to take this opportunity to do what Niamey asked it do: i.e., leave. U.S. interests in Niger are marginal at best and the costs of the U.S. troop presence are growing under the current regime. By revoking military cooperation with Washington, Niger just gave the United States a glidepath to properly rebalance policy commitments in West Africa. The Biden administration needs to take advantage of that, which starts by moving forces out of Niger.
There are several reasons why drawing down from Niger makes sense today. For starters, the U.S. has few strategic interests at stake in Niger. In 2013, U.S. forces deployed to Niger to help combat terrorist organizations affiliated with al Qaeda and later ISIS. None of these local terrorist groups have ever threatened or attempted to attack the United States or its closest allies, however. Instead, as numerous studies indicate, all are locally-focused insurgencies with exclusively regional, not global, objectives — they are, in short,........