Journal of International Affairs articles from March 22 2009

Journal of International Affairs archives from March 22 2009

Editors' foreword.(Editorial)
March 22, 2009... More than at any other time since the Cold War, Africa commands the attention of scholars, decisionmakers and the global public alike. The turn of the century has brought with it new strides in economic growth, political development and...

Obama and Africa: matching expectations with reality.(Barack Obama)(Report)
March 22, 2009... The election of Barack Obama as president of the United States has aroused expectations around the world, but nowhere as much as in Africa. Obama inherits a record of achievement on the continent from George W. Bush that will be hard to match,...

U.S. foreign assistance to Africa: securing America's investment for lasting development.(Report)
March 22, 2009... Since 2001, the United States has dramatically increased its commitment to development in Africa and has transformed the way it is implemented. In the last eight years, U.S. foreign assistance to sub-Saharan Africa managed by the State...

Africa: the United States and China court the continent.(Report)
March 22, 2009... The United States and China are the two most important bilateral, external actors in Africa today. While the United States wields more influence in most of Africa's fifty-three countries, China has surpassed it in a number of states and is...

Maritime piracy in East Africa.(Report)
March 22, 2009... More than 200 years ago, just as the United States was developing into a nation, corsair piracy challenged the ability of the country to conduct international trade throughout the Mediterranean Sea. While the Barbary threat was defeated, piracy...

African solutions to an international problem: arms control and disarmament in Africa.
March 22, 2009... In February 1994, Robert Kaplan published a highly controversial article in the influential Atlantic Monthly titled, "The Coming Anarchy." Kaplan prophesized that a combination of "scarcity, crime, overpopulation, tribalism and disease" would...

The International Criminal Court's case against the president of Sudan: a critical look.(Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir)(Report)
March 22, 2009... On 14 July 2008, after much advance publicity and fanfare, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo, applied for a warrant of arrest against the president of Sudan, Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, on charges...

The African Union: pitfalls and prospects for uniting Africa.(Organization overview)
March 22, 2009... As the African Union (AU) moves toward its tenth anniversary in 2012, it is drawing a great deal of attention to its handling of mounting crises on the continent. Across the continent, the AU is faced with crises that test its commitment and...

Governance and leadership in Africa: measures, methods and results.(Ibrahim Index of African Governance)(Report)
March 22, 2009... Governance is performance--the delivery of high quality political goods to citizens by governments of all kinds. In Africa, as everywhere else, those political goods are security and safety, rule of law, participation and human rights,...

Power and pressure: African media and the extractive sector.(Report)
March 22, 2009... Journalism in Africa has come far in recent decades. The decline of one-party dictatorships, which traditionally kept a grip on the press, has brought about rapid changes. (1) The number of media outlets has expanded and in many countries, such...

Kenya's unfinished agendas.(National Accord and Reconciliation Act)(Report)
March 22, 2009... Kenya is a critically important East African country at a crossroads. In the coming years, it will either chart a way through to democratic reform and state building, or it will join the ranks of the so-called collapsed of failed states. Much...

The glass fortress: Zimbabwe's cyber-guerrilla warfare.(Report)
March 22, 2009... Contrary to the gun battles we are accustomed to, we now have cyber-warfares fought from one's comfort zone, be it bedroom, office, swimming pool, etc., but with deadly effects. --Dr. Olivier Muchena, Zimbabwe African National...

Africa's growth and resilience in a volatile world.
March 22, 2009... Until 2008, thanks to domestic policy reforms, external assistance and high commodity prices, most of the economies of sub-Saharan Africa experienced sustained and accelerating growth for over a decade. Poverty was declining, health and...

An interview with Patrick Awuah.(Ashesi University)(Interview)
March 22, 2009... Patrick Awuah is the founder and president of Ashesi University, a private liberal arts college located in Accra, Ghana. He was born in Ghana but left in the mid-1980s to pursue an education in the United States, earning a bachelor's degree...

Five faces of African innovation and entrepreneurship.(Mo Ibrahim, Euvin Naidoo, John Atta Mills, Andrew Rugasira, and Izu Ojukwu)(Interview)
March 22, 2009... Africa's influence on Western culture has been celebrated for centuries, yet the continent has long been seen as requiring outside intervention to fuel its progress. Today, however, the growing number of high-profile African entrepreneurs...

Religion, social capital and development in the Sahel: the Niass Tijaniyya in Niger.(ANDREW WELLINGTON CORDIER ESSAY)(Organization overview)
March 22, 2009... Religion is not often pursued as a source of engagement in the international discourse on development. While faith-based organizations have received a greater audience and exerted greater influence in the past few years under the Bush...

China's role in Africa: a growing phenomenon.('China into Africa: Trade, Aid and Influence')(Book review)
March 22, 2009... China into Africa: Trade, Aid and Influence Robert I. Rotberg (ed.) (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2008), 317 pages. Since the mid-1990s, China has rapidly expanded its engagement with African states. Study of...

Africa at the turn of the century: state failure?('When Things Fell Apart: State Failure in Late-Century Africa')(Book review)
March 22, 2009... When Things Fell Apart: State Failure in Late-Century Africa Robert H. Bates (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 216 pages. Despite the optimism after independence and the end of the Cold War, violence and political...

Rethinking exclusion, ethnicity and conflict in Central Africa.('The Dynamics of Violence in Central Africa')(Book review)
March 22, 2009... The Dynamics of Violence in Central Africa Rene Lemarchand (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), 327 pages. Over the course of the past two decades, the Great Lakes Region of central Africa--encompassing the...

Through the Darkness: a Life in Zimbabwe.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2009... THROUGH THE DARKNESS: A LIFE IN ZIMBABWE Judith Garfield Todd (Cape Town: Zebra Press, 2007), 472 pages. Judith Todd's account of Zimbabwe's tragic post-colonial turmoil and the lawless rule of Robert Mugabe is a thorough,...

The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... THE TRANSLATOR: A TRIBESMAN'S MEMOIR OF DARFUR Daoud Hari (New York: Random House, 2008), 204 pages. In 2003, after years of looking for employment and months of rotting in an Egyptian jail, Daoud Hari decided to go back home to...

Say You're One of Them.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2009... SAY YOU'RE ONE OF THEM Uwem Akpan (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2008), 354 pages. Uwem Akpan's Say You're One of Them is a collection of short stories set in strife-ridden African environments. Told from the perspective of...

Peacekeeping in Sierra Leone.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2009... PEACEKEEPING IN SIERRA LEONE Funmi Olonisakin (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2008), 205 pages. Peacekeeping in Sierra Leone is the fascinating story of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), the peacekeeping...

Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... PLAYING THE ENEMY: NELSON MANDELA AND THE GAME THAT MADE A NATION John Carlin (New York: Penguin Group, 2008), 320 pages. John Carlin's work of non-fiction, Playing the Enemy, offers a refreshing portrait of the human effort...

Educational Chance in South Africa: Reflections on Local Realities, Practices, and Reforms.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... EDUCATIONAL CHANCE IN SOUTH AFRICA: REFLECTIONS ON LOCAL REALITIES, PRACTICES, AND REFORMS Everard Weber (Ed.) (Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers, 2008), 360 pages. What sparks educational reform in transition societies?...