The increasing levels of violence in Mali despite multiple peace and counterterrorist operations have proven that the strategies used were ineffective. Between the intersecting reasons underlying this failure, there is a question of how context analysis shapes the operations and their outcomes, and the pre-conditions set by social narratives around certain actors. Through a case study analysis, this dissertation seeks to identify limitations in the context analysis and explore how they have influenced the strategy setting and its outcomes. The key result is that the narrative around the Islamist rebels has eclipsed a considerable number of resources for conflict-resolution despite not being the central problem, while the interaction between counterterrorism and Islamism facilitates the escalation of violence.