Atoning for Britain’s colonialist past
By encouraging China’s colonialist present
Mauritius
Iran Shipping Sanctions Run Aground?
Officially, the Obama administration remains committed to enforcing sanctions on Iran’s main merchant shipping fleet, the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, also known as IRISL. But i...
Op-eds
Broad US Terror Alert Mystifies Experts; ‘It’s Crazy Pants,’ One Says
U.S. officials insisted Tuesday that extraordinary security measures for nearly two dozen diplomatic posts were to thwart an “immediate, specific threat,” a claim questioned by counte...
Op-eds
Enabling Mugabe to Cling On
Last Friday was the twenty-eighth anniversary of Zimbabwe's independence, although the country's long-suffering people of the country might be forgiven for not exactly marking the occas...
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
Climate Change and Security in Africa
By Dr. J. Peter Pham For much of Africa's post-independence history, "African unity" was more an aspiration than a reality. Consequently, even when, as I...
Op-eds
The Chinese Navy’s Somali Cruise
by Dr. Peter Pham Since the beginning of January, three vessels of China's People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) - the Guangzhou-class destroyer Wuhan...
Op-eds
AFRICOM Stands Up
By Dr. J. Pham A year and a half after it was first announced by President George W. Bush, the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) becomes fully operational as the Pentagon's six...
Op-eds
Enabling Mugabe to Cling On
Last Friday was the twenty-eighth anniversary of Zimbabwe's independence, although the country's long-suffering people of the country might be forgiven for not exactly marking the occasion with dances in the streets. Sure, some 15,000 people were bussed to Gwanzura Stadium in the suburb of Highfield, southwest of Harare, to stomp their feet and chant "Ndibaba Vanogona" (Shona for "he is an able father") as President Robert Mugabe arrived to treat them to an hour-long harangue, to which the listeners dutifully responded with cries of "Down with the British!" But overall the mood seemed to have been succinctly captured by Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), who, from the safety of his refuge abroad, noted that it was "the saddest Independence Day since our liberation from colonial rule." And while the responsibility for this tragedy reposes primarily with the Mugabe regime, some of the blame must be shared by its enablers abroad.
Op-eds
The Africa Command Rises – – Finally
Appearing Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced the creation of a new, unified military command for Africa. The move represents the administration&...
Op-eds
The Time Is Now for a U.S. Africa Command
The last major overhaul of the United States military – the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 (PL 99-433) – created nine unified combatant commands &n...