Winds of War Blow Along Ethiopia-Eritrea Border
Two months ago in this column space, I warned that "a little-known border conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia is rapidly escalating and threatens to not only the peace of the neighborhood,...
James Madison University
A New Era in U.S.-Vietnam Relations
On Tuesday the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to elect Vietnam to a seat on the Security Council, the first the country has gained since joining the organization in 1977. On...
Op-eds
Playing with Fire: South Africa’s Dangerous Terrorist Liaisons
On October 1, the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) was officially stood up, achieving its "initial operating capacity" as a subordinate component of the U.S. European Command (EUCOM)...
Op-eds
South Sudan: Simmering Below the Surface
Last Friday, seven Nigerian soldiers were laid to rest with full military honors in Abuja. The seven peacekeepers – along with one comrade each from Botswana, Mali, and Senegal – were...
Op-eds
Troubled Paradise: The Mixed Success of the African Union’s Intervention in the Comoros
Located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel off the east coast of the Africa, the Comoros Islands – Ngazidja (Grande Comore), Mwali (Mohéli), Nzwani (Anjouan), and Mahor&ea...
Op-eds
Securing Africa
On February 6, 2007, President George W. Bush launched a major evolution in American military posture when he formally announced that he had directed the Pentagon to establish a new unified...
Op-eds
Feeding the Hand that Bites You
Two years ago, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon led his country in a fateful decision to "disengage" from Gaza, uprooting 8,500 Jewish residents, many born in Gaza and some domiciled ther...
Op-eds
Zimbabwe Zigzags Onto Another Rough Patch
The ongoing stand-off in Zimbabwe between incumbent President Robert Mugabe and the main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, shows how much the political landscape can shift back and forth in t...
Op-eds
Mr. Bush Goes to Africa
Next week, President Bush, accompanied by his wife, Laura, will embark on a five-country tour across the African continent, with stops planned in Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, and Liberia. Whil...
Op-eds
Khartoum’s Partners in Beijing
Last week, some 200 baton-wielding policemen prevented Mia Farrow and members "Dream for Darfur" group from holding a rally near the site of Cambodia's "killing fields" to urge the People�...
Op-eds
Botswana’s Success Sparkles amid African Gloom
While the world has been watching the pathetic spectacle being played out in Harare, Zimbabwe, as Robert Mugabe clings desperately to the levers of power he has held for nearly three decades (see...
Op-eds
What’s at Stake in Sudan’s Abyei
In this column space three months ago, I warned that the tensions were so heightened that the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended the decades of civil war between the Arab-domin...
Op-eds
The Kenyan Tragedy and the Future of Democracy in Africa
If, outside the atypical case of South Africa, any country in Africa was viewed as an island of stability with a real shot at breaking free of the "development traps" which have ensnared the most...
Op-eds
The Battle for Libya: Implications for Africa
As battle lines crisscross between the rebels marching west to overthrow him and loyal military units taking the offensive against rebel-held towns in the eastern Libya, Colonel Muammar al-Qadhaf...
Op-eds
Somali Piracy Hits America: Some Questions in Need of Answers
The murder earlier this week by their captors of four United States citizens aboard the SV Quest, a yacht hijacked last Friday off the coast of Oman, brought home to America the increasing toll o...
Op-eds
Moroccan Exceptionalism?
I recently spent nearly two weeks in North Africa, arriving just before popular demonstrations drove Tunisia's Zine El Abidine Ben Ali from power and leaving just after the protesters occupi...
Op-eds
Somalia in Need of New Approach Two Decades after State Collapse
Last week marked the twentieth anniversary of the night when Mohamed Siyad Barre, president of the last entity that could plausibly be described as the government of Somalia, fled Mogadishu in hi...
Op-eds
Côte d’Ivoire Crisis: Some Lessons to Be Learned
In my review last week of Africa's likely top flash points for 2011, I expressed my concern that The year that was supposed to be Côte d'Ivoire's "ann...
Op-eds
Abyei: The Abscess Threatening the Sudan
If all goes as planned, exactly one month from today, on January 9, 2011, voters in the ten states of southern Sudan as well as southerners living in the northern part of the country and abroad w...
Op-eds
Behind Iran’s Foiled Gambian Gambit
His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya Abdul-Azziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh, President of the Republic of The Gambia, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and Chief Custodian of the Sacre...