Foreign Policy Blogs

Mugabe Makes Nice (For Now)

So Robert Mugabe is ready for “fresh and cooperative relations” with the West. Well that’s a breath of fresh air. The problem, of course, is that we’ve heard this song and dance before.

Here is the script to a movie we’ve all seen:

Act I:

Mugabe ruthlessly pillories and hectors and scathes and condemns the western powers.

Act II:

Mugabe makes a volte face and tosses off a few lines about playing nice.

Act III:

The west does something to get under Mugabe’s skin. (Perhaps this will qualify.)

Act IV:

We see the return of the blistering Mugabe shaking his fist at the “racists” and the “imperialists.”

fin.

 

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Author

Derek Catsam
Derek Catsam

Derek Catsam is an associate professor of history at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. Derek writes about race and politics in the United States and Africa, sports, and terrorism. He is currently working on books on bus boycotts in the United States and South Africa in the 1940s and 1950s, the Freedom Rides, and South African resistance politics in the 1980s. He has lived, worked, and travelled extensively throughout southern Africa. He is also a lifelong sports fan, with the Boston Red Sox as his first true love. He was one of about three dozen people to write books about the 2004 World Champion Red Sox, and the result is Bleeding Red: A Red Sox Fan's Diary of the 2004 Season. He writes about politics, sports, travel, pop culture, and just about anything else that comes to mind.

Areas of Focus:
Africa; Zimbabwe; South Africa; Apartheid

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