Hillary Clinton’s Africa trip continues. She spent Sunday in Angola where she continued her ongoing carrots and sticks message, the gist of which is: You are doing ok; do better; we’ll try to help; no time to explain how now, I’m off to the DRC.If this current trip is simply part of laying a foundation, it seems so far to have been quite successful. But it has also been short on specifics that need to follow for the trip to carry much long-term meaning.
AfricaFocus has argued that Angola is, paradoxically, “failed but successful.” Angola is successful because of its stunning growth rates, political consolidation, and recovery from decades of turmoil. But it is a failure (or perhaps more accurately, faces potential failure) because its current development model — which is heavily reliant on oil revenues that seem certain to shrink – makes the country a “ticking time bomb” in the words of observers. The successes might make it easier to defuse the bomb, but time is a factor.
