[Atlantic-Community.org]
Last week Atlantic Community, “The Open Think Tank on Foreign Policy,” hosted a theme week of articles from various observers on global affairs to discuss the theme of “Security in the Sahel.” My contribution was “A Fight Club Approach to Policy in the Sahel” …
“There have been gains in Tunisia. Through disagreements, controversies and blunders, the new phase, once the government is fully endorsed and up and running, will usher a new realism – a wake-up call […]” – Dr Larbi Sadiki regional expert and author of Arab Democratization: Elections without Democracy …
[The Star]
There is little doubting that the Kenyan elections just passed went a whole lot better than the last ones, in 2007, that resulted in widespread violence and chaos. December 2007 and January 2008 saw bloodshed that some observers chalked up to simple tribal and ethnic clashes. But …
(Pictiure from Tribeca Films/New York Times)
Oh dear.
In a (quite positive) review of the new film War Witch, which is set in an anonymous Sub-Saharan African country (but was filmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo and clearly is intended to evoke that country’s conflicts), Stephen Holden drops this …
With the French military intervention in Mali shifting to a more sustained action, the reality of the long, hard slog in the Mali region has triggered inevitable questions by diplomats, policy planners and many others as to what defines success – and what comes next?
Most mouthed answer: “Somalia.”
That’s correct. The …
So Mamphela Ramphele has re-entered South African politics in a big way. Ramphele, an anti-apartheid stalwart, Black Consciousness Leader, Medical Doctor, and academic leader recently announced the formation of a new political party, Agang, which she casts in the role of saving her country. Coming from …
On February 11, 2011, approximately two years ago, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down as the supreme leader of Egypt after a reign that lasted 30 years. His rise to the pinnacle of the country’s power structure came following the 1981 assasination of his predecessor, Anwar Sadat.
This …
Over the course of the last two weeks the African Cup of Nations football tournament has been playing out its myriad dramas across the host nation of South Africa. Historically played every in even numbered years, The Confederation of African Football (CAF) decided to switch to …
“The United States is struggling to confront an uptick in threats from the world’s newest jihadist hot spot with limited intelligence and few partners to help as the Obama administration weighs how to keep Islamic extremists in North Africa from jeopardizing national security without launching war. We want …
At the beginning of 2013, Forbes Magazine announced that the first female African had crossed the threshold into the status of billionaire. Isabel Dos Santos is the eldest daughter of Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos. Her wealth is composed of 28.8 percent shares in Zon Multimedia, the biggest …
The government of Kenya has been drawing fire for its recent decision to forcibly remove registered refugees from Nairobi and transfer them to already crowded camps. On December 18, 2012 the Kenyan Department of Refugee Affairs announced it would cease to register refugees in urban areas and instructed all existing …
There are certain narratives in South Africa that seem immune to change over time. Despite many indications that violent crime has been going down consistently over the last decade or more, South Africa is still tainted as a crime-infested country. Although AIDS rates have been dropping, for many South Africa …
Botswana has maintained a long and extensive history of hunting, as trophy hunters have flocked from all over the world at a chance to shoot some of the world’s most exotic animals. However, recent shifts in the benefits of the industry have prompted drastic changes for potential hunters and hunting …
[Image From SW Radio Africa]
Zimbabwe no longer occupies a great deal of space in international media coverage. Even in South African media the neighbor north of the Limpopo has returned to secondary status, on the backburner but not on the boil.
And it is true that things in Zimbabwe are not …
Budget support is in the news once more. Corruption in Uganda recently spurred several Western governments to suspend their budget support to the government there. Unfortunately, for Uganda, this type of foreign aid makes up almost a quarter of its annual operating budget.
So I’m …
