FPD

Know the world you live in
The archive of  Foreign Policy Digest
2007 - 2011

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China's New Safari into African Development

DEVELOPMENTS Walking the streets of Nairobi, Kenya, many visitors would be shocked by the changing social composition of this bustling capital. A colony of Great Britain until 1963, Kenya has recently opened Chinese schools, restaurants, and direct flights to China in order to capitalize on the nearly 50,000 ethnic Chinese in the country (other sources claim less). This statistic is not only isolated to Kenya. According to Xinhua, China's official news agency, as many as 750,000 Chinese are working and living in Africa.

May 1, 2010
D. Marko Cimbaljevich
May 2010

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Gacaca: Rwanda's Experiment in Community-Based Justice for Genocide Crimes Comes to a Close

DEVELOPMENTS In the next six months, Rwanda will complete the most comprehensive post-conflict justice program attempted anywhere in the world. Since 2001, 11,000 community-based courts known as gacaca (pronounced ga-CHA-cha), which are overseen by locally-elected judges and forbid any participation by lawyers, have prosecuted around 400,000 suspected perpetrators of the 1994 genocide. Nearly every Rwandan adult has participated in gacaca in some way, either as a witness, defendant, or by attending weekly hearings. Under gacaca’s plea-bargaining scheme, the vast majority of those convicted of genocide crimes have either had their sentences commuted to community service or, if they were imprisoned, have been reintegrated into the same communities where they committed crimes and now live side-by-side with genocide survivors and their families.

April 30, 2010
Phil Clark
International Crime and Punishment - April 2010

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Somalia: At the Margins at Our Peril

DEVELOPMENTS Dismissed as a failed state, Somalia is sometimes perceived as less significant to international affairs than it should be. But the region’s instability and complexity has recently attracted more attention. The United States (U.S.) military has been training and supplying the Somali national army in an attempt to bolster its efforts to retake the capital, Mogadishu, and other parts of the country from Al Shabab, an Islamic organization that has waged an insurgency against the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) since 2006. Al Shabab controls most of Mogadishu except for a very small section of the city held by the TFG. Around 5,000 African Union troops also provide military support for the government.

March 31, 2010
John Lyman
March 2010

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Corruption in Kenya: The Plots Continue

DEVELOPMENTS Corruption is at the heart of news from Kenya these days. Last week, President Mwai Kibaki suspended eight senior officials for three months pending investigations into two corruption scandals. In one, auditors from Price Waterhouse Coopers revealed that over $26 million had been lost through a program to give impoverished Kenyans access to subsidized maize. The second scandal, brought to light late last year, concerns the loss of more than one million dollars from the Ministry of Education during a short period. In response, both the British and U.S. governments suspended millions of dollars in education assistance in December and January.

February 28, 2010
Katherine Southwick
Corruption - February 2010

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Returns to Rutshuru: A Glimmer of Hope in the Democratic Republic of Congo?

The ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has uprooted millions of people from their homes. In North Kivu province however, one of the areas in eastern DRC worst hit by violence during the past decade, there are some early glimmers of hope. Despite continued fighting in many parts of North Kivu, improved security in some areas allowed an increased number of people to return home in 2009.

January 23, 2010
Camilla Olson
Hope - January 2010

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Sierra Leone: Women in Conflict with the Courts

Emmerson, one of Sierra Leone’s most popular artists, recently launched a new album, titled “Yesterday Betteh Pass Tiday?” The politically charged album queries whether Sierra Leone has actually improved since its civil war ended eight years ago. Working with the international community, Sierra Leone has been hard at work since 2002 trying to remake its image in terms of good governance, human rights, and rule of law. These are areas wherein the citizens of Sierra Leone have been in longstanding conflict with the State, and when left unchecked, create a fertile breeding ground for revolutionary ideology and a wide-spread conviction that change is necessary. Discontent with a corrupt political system is ultimately what sparked the “self-reliant struggle” of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in 1991, yet change still proves elusive.

December 1, 2009
Logan Hambrick
Democracy and Rule of Law - June/July 2009

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Ethnic Conflict in Zimbabwe: A Ghost of the Past?

Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai ended his boycott of the government last week, raising hopes for the survival of the global political agreement – the country’s fragile coalition. Trvangirai and other Movement for Democratic Change cabinet members left their posts on October 16 citing a litany of grievances with Robert Mugabe and the ruling ZANU-PF.

November 1, 2009
Theodore Kahn
Indigenous Rights - November 2009

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Reforming a Predatory Army in Eastern Congo

Each of the two million displaced civilians in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has a gut-wrenching story. In my five trips to eastern Congo since July 2007, the political dynamics have shifted dramatically, but the atrocities, displacement, and resulting humanitarian catastrophe are a painful reminder of a simple truth: ending the Congolese army’s predatory behavior is a perquisite to lasting stability in the country.

October 1, 2009
Colin Thomas-Jensen
Trafficking and Displacement - October 2009

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Corporate Social Responsibility: An Answer to Conflict Jewelry?

‍Conflict diamonds have reached every corner of the African continent from Sierra Leone, Ghana, Mali, Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Angola, and Zimbabwe. These diamonds and precious gems have been used by rebel movements and national governments to fund devastating wars for decades. Philippe Le Billion discusses how natural resources have long shaped a black market industry built upon a network of elites, commercial agents, and the abused workers that mine these precious resources. Diamonds and gemstones that motivate these conflicts are easily integrated into international primary commodity markets. With lax standards on tracing systems, sourcing, and transparency, jewelry conglomerates have profited from the violence and perpetuated poverty.

September 21, 2009
Sarah Magallanes
Ethnic and Sectarian Challenges - September 2009

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Western Sahara: Looking for Hope in the Desert

Western Sahara is never front-page news, but it deserves more attention. Its political status is the subject of one of Africa’s longest territorial disputes, a puzzle of realpolitik and rule of law that has lasted 34 years. Morocco contends that it should have sovereignty over Western Sahara while granting the region some measure of political and cultural autonomy. The Polisario Front, the government-in-exile of Western Saharan ethnic groups, holds that the territory’s final status should be decided in a referendum, with the option of independence. The protracted lack of a solution has fostered terrorism, and resulted in human rights abuses and lost economic opportunities.

August 18, 2009
Katherine Southwick
War and Peace - August 2009

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Why Obama’s Ghana Speech Comes at a Time of New Hope for Africa

President Obama went to Ghana this past July on his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa since becoming president. Obama chose to visit Ghana partly because it is a stable democratic country, with a growing economy relatively free of political corruption. The choice conveyed his message that the continent had the potential to overcome the corruption and mismanagement that holds back much of the region and that frustrates major aid donors and potential foreign investors. Comments concerning poor governance from previous U.S. presidents have sometimes been seen as paternalistic. But by complimenting Ghana’s progress, and through the perceived credibility that comes with having a cultural connection to the continent, by virtue of his Kenyan father, Obama conveyed a message that has been met with a rapturous response on the ground in Africa.

July 1, 2009
John Lyman
Democracy and Rule of Law - June/July 2009

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How Technology Can Support Education in Africa

From May 27-29, the eLearning Africa 2009 Conference will be held in Dakar, Senegal. Some 350 people from sixty countries will speak, and attendance will exceed the 1,500 people who showed up last year. The sheer size of the conference signals growing interest in Africa in the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in education.

May 1, 2009
John A. Daly
Education - May 2009

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Religion is Key to Conflict and Peace in Northern Uganda

The most violent hotspot in Africa right now is not the Darfur region of Sudan. Nor is it Somalia or Zimbabwe. The deadliest place in Africa today is in northeastern Congo, where the elusive Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), an insurgency that originated in northern Uganda in the 1980s, is wreaking havoc on defenseless Congolese communities. Since September 2008, LRA fighters have attacked dozens of villages and towns, killing over 1,000 civilians and displacing close to 200,000.

April 24, 2009
Michael Poffenberger & Maria Presley
Religion - April 2009

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Re-restructuring Foreign Aid: A Response to Dambisa Moyo

The Government of Rwanda recently declared its intention to significantly decrease its dependence on foreign aid within the next five years. For a country that relies on donors for between 60-70% of its government expenditures, this statement might seem brash and irresponsible. However, Dambisa Moyo, the former Head of Economic Research and Strategy for sub-Saharan Africa at Goldman Sachs and a former employee of the World Bank, believes that rejecting foreign aid is the only way to ensure lasting development in sub-Saharan Africa. Moyo’s arguments are provocative, but to reject foreign aid entirely is to discount the benefits aid has brought and can continue to bring to Africa. Rather than rejecting it, foreign aid should be restructured to strengthen the capacities of, and synergies between, governments and the private sector.

April 1, 2009
Kileken ole-YoiMoi
Public Health - March 2009

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From the Mountain to the Sea: 'Climate Change' Changes More Than Just the Weather

This month, ten underprivileged youth from Kenya, Tanzania, and Ghana will climb Mount Kilimanjaro in order to draw international attention to climate change in Africa. The trip to the “rooftop of Africa” is sponsored by the Kilimanjaro Initiative, named after Africa’s highest mountain. The climb is also supported by the United Nations' UNite to Combat Climate Change campaign. The U.N. Special Advisor on Sport for Development and Peace, Wilfred Lemke announced, “[t]his year’s climb will highlight–with the melting ice of Mount Kilimanjaro as a backdrop–how global warming has a direct impact on the living conditions of individuals and communities throughout the world.” But the mountain range is not the only region of Africa devastated by climate change.

March 2, 2009
Olivier Kamanda
Climate Change - February 2009

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Video Interview: Roger Ballentine, former Chairman, White House Task Force on Climate Change

Roger Ballentine, President of Green Strategies discusses climate change with Olivier Kamanda. Mr. Ballentine served as Chairman of the White House Climate Change Task Force and Deputy Assistant to the President for Environmental Initiatives under President Clinton. He is a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and a Senior Fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute.

February 25, 2009
Olivier Kamanda
Climate Change - February 2009

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Justice Threatens Peace in Congo, Rwanda and Uganda

On January 23rd, justice caught up to Congolese warlord General Laurent Nkunda. The leader of the Tutsi militia which caused nearly 200,000 deaths in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was arrested by Rwandan soldiers, some of which were former allies. Nkunda joins other African warlords including Charles Taylor, Thomas Lubanga and Jean-Pierre Bemba, now in custody. The United Nations and Western countries request that these and other war criminals face justice at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

January 30, 2009
Olivier Kamanda
Outlook on 2009 - January 2009

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Was There Good News from Africa in 2008?

Headlines from Africa in 2008 recounted brutal riots in Kenya, a war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and election-driven chaos in Zimbabwe. But there was also good news. The International Monitory Fund has estimates economic growth for sub-Saharan Africa in 2008 at 6%, compared to global growth rates of 3 or 4%—a good sign given global food and fuel price shocks in the last year. Relative peace in former conflict zones like Cote D’Ivoire, Mozambique, Rwanda is noteworthy. In fact, President Bush announced the reopening of the Peace Corps in Rwanda this February, 14 years after the genocide forced the offices to close.

December 18, 2008
Olivier Kamanda
Free Trade Under the Microscope - November/December 2008

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How Obama and McCain Would Respond to Darfur

During the second Presidential Debate, moderator Tom Brokaw asked both candidates under what circumstances they would use “United States combat forces in situations where there's a humanitarian crisis, but it does not affect our national security.” The responses by Barack Obama and John McCain shed light on how each of them would respond to a conflict like Darfur...

October 29, 2008
Michael Kleinman
Election 2008 - October 2008

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Africa a Hotspot for Oil Investment

With the price of oil having more than quadrupled since 2004, governments are negotiating more and more deals in oil-producing African states, now hotspots for foreign investments. African industries have historically been overlooked as potential investments because of political and economic instability on the continent, yet with African markets growing steadily, investors are seeing the continent as an attractive opportunity to capitalize on emerging industries and markets. Despite rampant poverty on the continent, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, African investments in fact provide “the highest returns on foreign direct investment of any region in the world,” according to the World Bank.

September 1, 2008
Cathy Fisher
Global Need for Energy - September 2008

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Al-Bashir Indicted: Justice versus Peace?

On July 14th, 2008, International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Louis Moreno-Ocampo requested an arrest warrant for the President of Sudan, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on the charges of committing crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide in Darfur. This is the first time that the ICC has ever brought genocide charges; it's also the first time that the Court has brought charges against a sitting head of state.

August 21, 2008
Anne van den Heuvel
August 2008

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Mugabe in Zimbabwe: A Threat to Stability, Democracy

Zimbabwe’s March 29th, 2008 parliamentary and presidential elections renewed political turmoil in the country. For the first time, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) lost parliamentary control to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), an opposition movement led by Morgan Tsvangirai.

July 25, 2008
Cathy Fisher
Radical Transformations - July 2008

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Renewed Rebel Offensive in Chad: An Analysis

Only four months after Chadian rebels attacked and briefly occupied the capital city of N’Djamena, hostilities renewed in the east of Chad on June 11th. Over a one-week period the National Alliance (NA) rebellion, a conglomeration of three rebel groups, quickly captured towns of strategic importance along the route to the capital. The rapid progress of the rebel armies led to a tense environment in N’Djamena, where U.N. and Western forces were contemplating evacuation.

June 22, 2008
Cameron Chisholm
May/June 2008

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What can the international community do about corruption?

The results from Zimbabwe's election recount are nearly complete. A CNN source indicates that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai led with 47% of the vote to incumbent President Mugabe's 43%. After 28 years in power, Mugabe's campaign of violence and intimidation has resulted in international pressure for him to step down. Rampant corruption, food shortages, and over 100,000% inflation continue to plague the country's nearly 13 million people....

April 30, 2008
Olivier Kamanda
April 2008

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Peace vs. Justice in Uganda

Does international criminal justice promote the settlement of on-going conflicts or does it, in contrast, stand in the way of peace agreements? This question has become one of the most pressing in the fields of international criminal law and transitional justice. The debate is perhaps best illustrated in Uganda where in mid-2006, after a twenty-year civil war, the Lords Resistance Army ("LRA"), a rebel group that plagued northern Uganda with twenty years of violence...

March 9, 2008
William Burke-White
March 2008

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Kenya in Crisis

More than 200,000 Kenyans have been displaced due to election-fueled ethnic chaos in this usually stable east African country. Another 100,000 people face starvation as a result of the violence. The intense riots and looting were touched off on December 27th when the incumbent presidential candidate, President Mwai Kibaki, declared victory over contender Raila Odinga under questionable circumstances...

February 1, 2008
Cameron Chisholm
January/February 2008

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Amid Turmoil in Somalia, a Hint of Hope

Somalia is becoming increasingly unstable. Fighting between Ethiopian-backed Somali government troops and insurgents has ravaged for months. Roadside bombings, kidnappings and political assassinations regularly occur. Persistent violence has lead to mass exodus and scarcity of food in the war-torn Mogadishu.

December 10, 2007
Mariana Marques
August 2008

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Save Darfur... and the rest of Sudan, too

Representatives from the Sudanese government met with various rebel groups this weekend in Sirte, Libya, for a new round of peace talks concerning Darfur. The talks were aimed at ending the four year conflict between the government of Sudan and tribal rebel groups. But as the world's attention drew to resolving the Darfur crisis, a former conflict was resurfacing.

November 1, 2007
Olivier Kamanda
First Issue - November 2007