Elevating the military role of UN peacekeeping forces would do little to address the root causes of instability and violence in the Congo. MONUSCO needs to be a force for stability in a diverse field of international actors, and it needs to help provide for a more durable system of civilian protection—one that resonates far beyond the battlefield.
The international community must implement stabilization measures alongside political solutions, military intervention, and humanitarian aid.
Many African governments prefer China as an economic partner over Western countries for a number of reasons. First, China’s own development experience has instructive value. Second, China fulfills Africa’s need for critical infrastructure more cheaply, less bureaucratically, and more quickly. And finally, China portrays Africa more positively as a partner in “mutually beneficial cooperation” and “common prosperity,” rather than a “doomed continent” requiring aid.
Sympathy for a state’s past should not color current policy.
In Ghana, the opposition candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo is challenging the Electoral Commission’s declaration that John Mahama, the incumbent, has won the presidential election.
Khartoum’s control is precarious.
Voting is generally done by blocs, not by individuals, who benefit from a patronage system that resembles the special interest groups of First World lobbies.
Fauzia Haji Adan was sworn in on Monday November 19, 2012, as the Somali Federal Republic’s deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, making history as Somalia’s first woman to hold those posts. Another Somali woman, Maryan Qassim, was also sworn in as the minister for social services. But only a policy of sustained affirmative action can address ingrained structural imbalances against Somali women; one or two cabinet appointments won’t cut it.
Just two countries — South Africa and Nigeria — currently account for over 33 percent of the continent’s economic output.
After Hurricane Sandy deprived the Northeast of gas, power, food, and clean water, drivers in New York and New Jersey were forced to line up for rationed gas. Sandy demonstrated that a natural disaster could quickly, if temporarily, downgrade a rich country to third-world status.