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All statements of fact and expressions of opinion contained in this report are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs or of the project funders. [...] Terrorist violence on the continent has increased 300 percent over the past decade, with the bulk of violence in the Sahel and Somalia, the two areas that have seen the greatest concentration of US security assistance on the continent.4 This should not be surprising given the results from a similar approach during the Cold War, when the United States prioritized preventing the growth of Soviet inf. [...] But the US government lacks the tools and data necessary to assess the utility and soundness of current and future security assistance programs, so it risks Less is More — 13 continuing to default to the same playbook in the future with current security partners as well as other countries in the region. [...] Isaac Zida, who led the 2014 coup that pushed out Compaore under the guise of public pressure, was also a beneficiary of US counterterrorism and military intelligence training.63 US training promotes the concept of civilian leadership, but US assistance in practice helped build a culture of military primacy in the country, used to justify military intervention in government affairs.64 And the coup. [...] However, much of that wealth went to the civilian, military, and political elite dominated by the Tigrayan minority, which spurred discontent and mistrust in much of the population.83 Tensions came to a head in 2018, and Ethiopia’s two largest ethnic groups, the Oromo and Amhara, joined forces to oust the TPLF from leadership in the governing coalition, placing Abiy Ahmed at the helm as prime mini.