May 2012
Lions, Tigers, and Emerging Markets: Africa’s Development Dilemmas
by Anne Pitcher
“Much of Africa’s wealth is unevenly spread across the continent and tends to be concentrated in resource-rich countries with large populations.”
Somalia at the Tipping Point?
by Ken Menkhaus
“While transitional politics and the war against Al Shabab are dominating headlines, . . . a combination of intense pressures is making subsistence livelihoods less and less viable and producing massive, irreversible migrations with enormous long-term implications for Somalia and Kenya.”
The Regionalization of African Security
by William Reno
“From the perspective of officials in Africa, participating in regional conflict management is now one of the best ways for governments . . . to get international resources to strengthen their own authority.”
Kenya Struggles to Fix Itself
by Jacqueline M. Klopp
“[T]he country has bought a short amount of time in which to entrench the new constitution, wield it for reform, and battle ghosts of the past.”
Between Democracy and Militancy: Islam in Africa
by Leonardo A. Villalón
“[T]he effort to try to distinguish between good and bad Muslim ideologies may be much less important than the need to support functional political institutions.”
Perspective: US Africa Policy: Rhetoric Versus Reality
by Jessica Piombo
Supporting shady regimes for security reasons can overshadow the actions America takes across the continent to aid democracy, human rights, development, and public health.
Books: The Pirates of Puntland
by William W. Finan Jr.
A freelance journalist living in Somalia studied the buccaneers who have seized ships in the Gulf of Aden and captured the attention of navies and news media.
The Month in Review: March 2012
by the editors of Current History
An international chronology of events in March,
country by country day by day
