Africa Archives

The Era of Nation Cultivation

Nikolas K. Gvosdev | May 25, 2012

The concept of nation building has brought nothing but trouble. It's time for a paradigm shift.

Reaching Iran through South Africa

Eliot Pence

Mehrun Etebari

| May 23, 2012

Why the most successful route to reaching a nuclear deal with Tehran may be through Pretoria.

Instability Threatens the Sahel

Rohan Gunaratna | Apr 26, 2012

Weapons and unrest are spreading from Libya and inflaming long-dormant tensions throughout the region.

When to Intervene

Amitai Etzioni | Apr 13, 2012

Protecting innocent lives is a valid argument for humanitarian intervention. Promoting regime change is not.

Stop It with the Kony 2012, Already

Malou Innocent | Apr 12, 2012

Washington reviles the LRA yet supports Arab tyrannies guilty of human-rights abuses on a vastly larger scale.

The Accidental Coup

Paul R. Pillar | Apr 3, 2012

What last month's spontaneous protest-cum-mutiny-cum-coup in Mali tells us about the unpredictability of history.

Al-Qaeda Grows in Africa

Rohan Gunaratna | Mar 23, 2012

The notorious terrorist group has joined forces with Somali Islamists to wreak havoc on another continent.

Skepticism Needed About “Freedom Fighters”

Ted Galen Carpenter | Mar 14, 2012

The anti-Soviet mujahideen. Jonas Savimbi. The Nicaraguan Contras. Kony's LRA. America's opinion leaders must be more careful about whose politics they endorse.

The Fallout from Kony 2012

J. Peter Pham | Mar 13, 2012

Did the Kony 2012 documentary do more harm than good?

Nigeria's Battle for Stability

John Campbell | Feb 28, 2012

Despite a veneer of democracy, this oil-rich nation has suffered from dysfunctional governance for decades, and tensions between the Christian South and the Muslim North are rising. Nigeria needs creative American diplomacy.