There will be no peace if underlying grievances aren’t addressed, militaries victimize local populations, and states fail to provide basic services.
Lessons from Africa: Military Intervention Fails to Counter Terrorism
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Cote d'Ivoire
Food of the Gods
A prominent part of holiday festivities is chocolate, one of our most adored comfort foods. Chocolate is made from the beans (actually the seeds) of the pods that grow on the trunk and main branches of the cocoa plant. In a fitting tribute to the Mayan (and later the Aztec) belief in the divine origin of cocoa, Swedish scientist and father of modern plant taxonomy, Carolus Linnaeus, gave the cocoa tree the name Theobroma cacao. Theobroma is Greek for “food of the gods,” and cacao is derived from the Mayan word ka’kau.
Beyond Gbagbo’s Last Stand
After the drama of Laurent Gbagbo’s capture in Abidjan, international attention has swung away from Cote d’Ivoire. At the precise moment when external voices for justice are most necessary, the cameras and critics seem to have moved on. Reducing Cote d’Ivoire’s political struggle to the recent presidential contest is a profound misunderstanding of the complexity of the Ivorian conflict and a sure way to miss the path toward peace.
African Solutions for Cote d’Ivoire: The Deception of ‘No Solution’
Despite Africa’s intention to empower its continental and regional organisations, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States have failed to propose a determined solution for the post-electoral crisis in Côte d’Ivoire. Instead the prospect of a new civil war looms on the Ivoirian horizon.
Robert Kaplan Continues to Flog His Tribal Ruler Meme With Gaddafi, Gbagbo and Saleh
You might think that the poor critical reception he received for his book about tribal politics would make Robert Kaplan think twice before resurrecting the “warrior” leitmotif in relation to Gaddafi, Gbagbo, and Saleh.
Crisis in Cote d’Ivoire: What Impact on Women?
The political crisis in Côte d’Ivoire has had major diplomatic, financial, economic and social repercussions on the population, including on women and the organisations that defend their rights.
Has the UN Failed Cote d’Ivoire?
Polarised and violent political crises that recur in nation states signal that the political formulae adopted to resolve the crises have not worked. Such is the stark reality in Côte d’Ivoire. The United Nations’s (UN) strategy to oversee elections and install a winner-takes-all Western-style ‘democratically elected’ state president has failed.