Foreign Policy Blogs

Tag Archives: Africa

Equality and Efficiency

As the inaugural post to ‘Global Health’, I thought I’d start with a bit of philosophy.  A colleague of mine, with a career in the public sector, who at the time was pursuing his MBA, once remarked to me: “I’ve been pursuing equality my entire career; I decided now it was time to take a closer look at efficiency.”  As someone with a business […]

read more

Fighting Africa's Colonial Past

By Miranda Jolicoeur, Guest Contributor The effect of the African Commission’s ruling last month on indigenous land rights in Kenya is an important ruling, not only for the recognition of land rights among indigenous populations in Africa, but for a wide-scale acknowledgment of indigenous people and their marginalization. The ruling could also potentially help other […]

read more

Become a Fan on Facebook and More…

Many thanks for reading WAFP and your comments. We encourage those of you on the very addictive Facebook to become fans of WAFP. I still don’t understand why Twitter is so magical, but we’re on it and can be followed. We also wanted to welcome aboard Jessica D’Itri, our awesome editorial intern. Check out Jessica’s […]

read more

Shashi Tharoor spells out Africa policy

In an interview with the Pragati magazine, India’s Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor said that India has a special advantage over many other countries in its relations with Africa. Comparing India’s standing in Africa to that of China and the West he said, “they (African countries) see a country that is accessible, […]

read more

Show Me The Money

One heart-warming story I have been following has been the epic international showdown between the IRS and the Swiss banking giant UBS. Until recently, if you were to ask any American to name a “good” country, Switzerland would probably have come to mind first, because of its role in World War II. More recent events […]

read more

Is the ICC biased?

Is the ICC biased?

The Christian Science Monitor posted an interesting story regarding the Annual Meeting of the International Bar Association which is currently going on this week in Madrid.  It raises the growing discontent of African states towards the International Criminal Court. At present, all four of the active situations being prosecuted by the court concern African conflicts: […]

read more

The Future of Human Rights in Africa

The credibility of the African regional human rights system suffered a serious setback last week when President Yahaya Jammeh of The Gambia made comments threatening human rights activists.  This is not the first time an African head of state has made disparaging remarks about human rights activists and unfortunately will probably not be the last.  […]

read more

Chad Update

In the past couple of weeks, the International Crisis Group, which monitors and comments on conflict situations around the world, has been focusing on the African country of Chad. Chad is neighbor to Sudan and starting point of what had been one of the most anticipated oil pipelines in history. ICG’s recommendations ask Chad’s government […]

read more

Uganda's Oil

Central Africa is not the first place energy people traditionally think of when it comes to oil. Now it appears Uganda may have up to 2 billion barrels of the stuff, according to their government. The question is what to do about it. Uganda would like to have a refinery, although some oil companies say this […]

read more

Secretary Clinton in the DRC: Focus on Sexual Violence

On her ten day trip through Africa, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will make two stops in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – capital Kinshasa and Goma in the east. Estimates state that conflict in the DRC (a country the size of the US east of the Mississippi) has resulted in 3.5 […]

read more

Taylor denies role in conflict diamonds

Charles Taylor testified Tuesday before the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone for the first time, calling the charges against him bogus. Taylor served as president of Liberia during the 1991-2002 civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone. Taylor allied with the leader of the Revolutionary United Front, Foday Sankoh, operating in Sierra Leone to hijack […]

read more

ICC Defied: Africa will not co-operate on Sudan

On Friday the African Union (AU) announced it will not co-operate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in enforcing its March decision to charge Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Under the Rome Statute establishing the court, any party to the statute is required to arrest al-Bashir if he enters […]

read more

Chad's 'African Pinochet' – Time for Trial?

An African Union summit will bring African heads of state together tomorrow in Libya; in anticipation 8 human rights organizations  yesterday called on the AU to ensure that Senegal prosecutes former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré for crimes against humanity and torture. Habré, dubbed the “African Pinochet”, ruled Chad from 1982 until 1990; a Truth Commission […]

read more

Russian president’s assurances fail to mask resource ambition

Russian president’s assurances fail to mask resource ambition

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev attempted to allay global fears that Moscow is trying to amass access to natural resources this week during a trip through Egypt, Nigeria, Namibia and Angola as he signed billion dollar energy deals providing Russia a greater foothold in Africa . In Angola, Medvedev emphasized that these resource contracts were important […]

read more

Russia's energy quest moves to Africa

Russia's energy quest moves to Africa

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is on a 4-nation tour this week through Africa to push his expansive international energy policy. Today, his former company, Russian gas giant Gazprom, signed a $2.5 bln deal with its counterpart in Nigeria to build infrastructure including refineries, pipelines and gas power stations. The deal gives access to Nigeria’s resources […]

read more

About Us

Foreign Policy Blogs is a network of global affairs blogs and a supplement to the Foreign Policy Association’s Great Decisions program. Staffed by professional contributors from the worlds of journalism, academia, business, non-profits and think tanks, the FPB network tracks global developments on Great Decisions 2014 topics, daily. The FPB network is a production of the Foreign Policy Association.