Africa Archives - Page 48 of 163 - Foreign Policy In Focus

Supporting Peace – Not War – in Kenya

by Cassidy Regan | Nov 11, 2011

U.S. support for the recent Kenyan invasion of Somalia is disheartening for a number of reasons. Perhaps most disturbing, though, is that it provides further proof of a U.S. policy toward Kenya that emphasizes short-term interests in counterterrorism at the expense of long-term commitments to peace and stability. As Kenya’s next national elections approach and the potential for renewed violence in the country increases, the United States can and should shift its priorities toward those that will foster sustainable Kenyan and regional security – rather than those that threaten to undermine it entirely.

Is Alarm About Seven Billion People Just Modern-day Eugenics?

by Russ Wellen | Nov 3, 2011

Many believe that attempts to control population growth are a conspiracy by the “global elite” to keep the world’s population to a controllable minimum.

History Repeats Itself with Somalia Invasion

by Francis Njubi Nesbitt | Oct 31, 2011

Kenya’s ill-advised incursion into Somalia on Oct. 16 after a rash of kidnappings in the tourist paradise of Lamu will most likely lead to a long and expensive quagmire. The escalation will further destabilize a region already reeling from war, piracy, famine, and international terrorism.

Target: Africa

by John Feffer | Oct 25, 2011

An informal competition took place during the Bush years for the title of “second front” in the war on terror. Administration officials often referred to Southeast Asia as the next major franchise location for al-Qaeda, with the Philippines in particular slated to become the “next Afghanistan.” Then there was the border between Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay, which State Department officials termed a “focal point for Islamic extremism in Latin America.” Worried about the spread of al-Qaeda operatives in North Africa, the Bush administration also developed the Pan-Sahel Initiative, which became the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Initiative before finally being folded into the Pentagon’s new Africa Command.

Dismantling Elmina Castle

by Kwei Quartey | Oct 20, 2011

According to Ghana’s Minister of Energy, 13 different petroleum operations are in different stages of oil exploration off Ghana’s shore, and more companies are seeking production rights all the time. The British, Dutch, Chinese, Italians, Russians and Americans are all salivating at Ghana’s front door. Ghana has long been a leading cocoa exporter, but cocoa and its end product chocolate do not elicit the intensity of lust that oil does.

Great Game in the Horn of Africa

by Paul Mutter | Oct 19, 2011

The United States announced this past week that it is deploying a 100-man mission to assist the Ugandan government in tracking down the remnants of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a force whose bloody conflict with the Ugandan military has devastated northern Uganda and its environs since 1987. But why now, in 2011, is the U.S. government making this commitment to combat the LRA?

The Price of the Libya Intervention: Surface to Air Missiles for All

by Conn Hallinan | Oct 14, 2011

Enough surface-to-air missiles have disappeared in Libya to turn all of North Africa into a no-fly zone.

Bono’s African Philanthropy Could Use a Remix

by Scott Charney | Oct 10, 2011

The political causes of famine in the Horn of Africa are completely absent from the rhetoric of Bono’s ONE campaign.

The Balkanization of Somalia

by Abdinur Mohamud | Sep 26, 2011

Political instability within Somalia and the actions of the international community are closely connected. By supporting regional actors inside Somalia, instead of supporting the federal government, the international community is contributing to the centrifugal forces that keep the country weak, violent, and in a prolonged humanitarian crisis.

Stabilizing Congo

by Patrick Cannon | Sep 22, 2011

Despite the efforts of the United Nations’ largest active peacekeeping force, several peace agreements among the belligerents, and a temporary six-month ban on mining earlier this year, conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) persists after nearly 15 years. It has been—and continues to be—a destructive conflict. More than 5.4 million perished in the region between 1998 and 2003, and an estimated 45,000 continue to die monthly due to malnutrition, disease, and violence.