The Alliance of Sahel States (AES) is a confederation of three landlocked, military-led West African states, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, formed across 2023 and 2024 after coups in each. All three face the same jihadist insurgency that crosses their shared borders. They have expelled French forces and announced withdrawal from the regional body ECOWAS, and have turned to Russia for security while other outside powers such as Turkey, the Gulf states, and China also seek influence. A binding confederation means enforceable commitments: pooled defence, a shared force, coordinated foreign policy, and no separate deals with outside powers. Hedging means each state avoiding firm alignment and keeping good relations with rival outside powers at once to extract the most from each.

Class based solidarity organizes political action around shared economic status and labor conditions to challenge wealth inequality, whereas identity based coalition building organizes political action around shared demographic characteristics such as race, gender, religion or sexual orientation with the aim of dismantling systemic discrimination targeting specific groups.