Despite promising to reduce France's involvement in Africa after decades of 'Françafrique', the presidency of François Hollande has seen one of the most activist periods of French engagement in Africa in recent history - especially in response to violent jihadist Salafist groups both at home and in West Africa (WA). In addition to renewed activism, the character of France's actions has shifted from direct engagement with regional organisations to novel bilateral security interventions. My proposed thesis will examine the contradiction between Hollande's initial objectives and this period of French intervention with a view to understanding the drivers of and the shape taken by French security policy in WA. It will explore how, in a period of 'power diffusion' to non-state actors and global interconnectedness, local and global threats are increasingly blurred and intertwined, driving France - as a global player - back into West African security to support local allies. Focusing on the strategically significant WA region this thesis will 1) examine the domestic and foreign policy considerations that motivated French involvement; 2) explore the new and innovative character of recent French interventions in the region; 3) assess how these interventions have been legitimised and 4) contribute to conceptual and theoretical debates on contemporary security and intervention.