Foreign Policy Blogs

Arms to Zim?

The news cycle is tough to predict. That much I think we can all agree upon. As much as the world has been outraged by the events of recent weeks in Zimbabwe, who knew that it would take a bizarre arms shipment to sharpen the focus? Even China, whose willingness to destabilize Africa for its own benefit appears to have no limits, and which obtusely sees nothing wrong with the scenario they have fomented, seems to be wavering on whether the infamous ship bearing arms bound for Zimbabwe, a country that certainly does not need more weapons right now, will reach its destination. African leaders, including many in South Africa, are finally beginning to rouse from their seeming somnolence to question this deal and in some cases to condemn it, or at least to make clear that they will not facilitate it. In the end, it is possible that the ship may reach Zim, but for that to happen, some country will have to facilitate the arms getting overland to landlocked Zimbabwe, and one hopes that regional pressure will be enough to prevent that from happening.

 

Author

Derek Catsam

Derek Catsam is a Professor of history and Kathlyn Cosper Dunagan Professor in the Humanities at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. He is also Senior Research Associate at Rhodes University. 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 and on the 1981 South African Springbok rugby team's tour to the US. He is the author of three books, dozens of scholarly articles and reviews, and has published widely on current affairs in African, American, and European publications. He has lived, worked, and travelled extensively throughout southern Africa. 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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