Hot Off the Presses

Strengthening African Governance
Ibrahim Index of African Governance: Results and Rankings 2007

By Robert I. Rotberg and Rachel M. Gisselquist; Mo Ibrahim Foundation; Harvard's Kennedy School of Government; World Peace Foundation

The new generation of African leaders faces a major challenge: lifting millions of people from poverty. This cannot be achieved without good governance. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation is an African initiative that has been established to stimulate debate on good governance across sub-Saharan Africa and the world, provide objective criteria by which citizens can hold their governments to account, and recognize achievement in African leadership.

The essential political goods that nation-states are responsible for delivering to their inhabitants can be summarized and gathered under five categories: Safety and Security; Rule of Law, Transparency, and Corruption; Participation and Human Rights; Sustainable Economic Opportunity; and Human Development.

The Ibrahim Index measures the degree to which each of these political goods is provided within the forty-eight African countries south of the Sahara for the years being investigated — 2000 and 2002 (for baseline indications) and 2005 (the last year with reasonably complete available data for nearly all sub-Saharan African nation-states).

"The major innovative feature of the Ibrahim Index is its emphasis on measuring the output of 'political goods.' The fact that it is an 'African-owned' initiative lends it important symbolic significance." — Oxford Analytica

Governance and Information Technology: From Electronic Government to Information Government

Edited by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and David Lazer; The MIT Press

Developments in information and communication technology and networked computing over the past two decades have given rise to the notion of electronic government, most commonly used to refer to the delivery of public services over the Internet. This volume argues for a shift from the narrow focus of "electronic government" on technology and transactions to the broader perspective of information government — the information flows within the public sector, between the public sector and citizens, and among citizens — as a way to understand the changing nature of governing and governance in an information society.

"The e-governance revolution has transformed the way that government commonly delivers basic services. But has it transformed democracy? This is a first-class study of the complex processes of information flows between citizens and government."
—Pippa Norris, director, Democratic Governance Group, Bureau for Development Policy United Nations Development Programme

Targeting Civilians in War

By Alexander B. Downes
Cornell Studies in Security Affairs, Cornell University Press

Accidental harm to civilians in warfare often becomes an occasion for public outrage, from citizens of both the victimized and the victimizing nation. In this vitally important book on a topic of acute concern for anyone interested in military strategy, international security, or human rights, Alexander B. Downes reminds readers that democratic and authoritarian governments alike will sometimes deliberately kill large numbers of civilians as a matter of military strategy. What leads governments to make such a choice?

Downes examines several historical cases: British counterinsurgency tactics during the Boer War, the starvation blockade used by the Allies against Germany in World War I, Axis and Allied bombing campaigns in World War II, and ethnic cleansing in the Palestine War. He concludes that governments decide to target civilian populations for two main reasons — desperation to reduce their own military casualties or avert defeat, or a desire to seize and annex enemy territory. Democracies historically have proven especially likely to target civilians in desperate circumstances.

"This is a powerful and disturbing study of the dark side of democracy...." — Scott D. Sagan, Stanford University

The Powers to Lead

By Joseph S. Nye; Oxford University Press

What qualities make a leader succeed in business or politics? In an era when the information revolution has dramatically changed the playing field, when old organizational hierarchies have given way to fluid networks of contacts, and when mistrust of leaders is on the rise, our ideas about leadership are clearly due for redefinition.

With The Powers to Lead, Joseph S. Nye offers a sweeping look at the nature of leadership in today's world, in an illuminating blend of history, business case studies, psychological research, and more. As he observes, many now believe that the more authoritarian and coercive forms of leadership — the hard power approaches of earlier military-industrial eras — have been largely supplanted in postindustrial societies by soft power approaches that seek to attract, inspire, and persuade rather than dictate. Nye argues, however, that the most effective leaders are actually those who combine hard and soft power skills in proportions that vary with different situations. He calls this smart power.

“Finally, a book that analyzes what leadership really means and how it relates to power. It will be invaluable for both political and business leaders alike." — Walter Isaacson, author of Einstein: His Life and Universe, and president, the Aspen Institute

Preventing Genocide: Practical Steps toward Early Detection and Effective Action

By David A. Hamburg; Paradigm

Dr. David Hamburg's groundbreaking book approaches the problem of mass violence from three perspectives. The first part of the book examines the root causes of genocide, using illustrative case histories from the 19th century to the present to identify recurrent elements and patterns in genocides as they develop. A basic theme is that clear warnings always appear long before genocide erupts, and that there are practical ways to prevent its outbreak before mass violence occurs. The second part of the book describes pillars of operational and structural prevention: elements in society that have strong long-term potential for preventing mass violence of all kinds. The third part considers what various organizations and institutions have done and can do to build and maintain the pillars.

"In Preventing Genocide, David Hamburg makes the most compelling case I have read for our ability to prevent 'the problem from hell.'" — The Honorable Lee H. Hamilton, president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and former U.S. Representative (D-Indiana)