Foreign Policy Blogs

Zim's Continuing Stalemate

We are fast approaching the year anniversary of the fragile alliance that is Zimbabwe’s Unity Government,” and while the worst aspects of the country’s economic disaster have stabilized, virtually no progress has been made on breaking the impasse that has set in between Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC. And of course such an impasse benefits Mugabe, who has shown no inclination to compromise because in this case, a stalemate keeps him in power. And let there be no mistake about it — between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, the system is currently stacked so that Mugabe is first among equals.

 

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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