Africa

Ever since this group of states became more than a handy acronym about a decade ago, the question whether the partial common interests or the striking differences among them will ultimately prevail has been posed and though it remains open, contemporary trends in international politics have, in fact, given the group new impetus, at least for the time being.

Dr. Ian Bremmer, expert in political risk and founder of the Eurasia Group, gave a seminar sponsored by the the Future of Diplomacy Project on Thursday, November 9 at the Harvard Kennedy School, titled “Managing Risk in an Unstable World."

"When colonial power structures ravage the lives of ordinary people for decades on end, and those people have no recourse to political, social, or economic redress of grievances, they will usually turn to God and their religion as a last resort to salvage their humanity. If the colonial exploitation continues unabated, that explosive situation will usually end in something dramatic and disruptive — revolution, mass uprisings, civil wars, and large-scale internal displacements and illegal migrations..."

Nuclearweapons. AIDS. Environmentaldestruction. Americanresearcherssaywhat you feardepends a lot on whereyoulive. But this year, researchersfound that people everywherebelievereligious and ethnic hatred is increasinglybecoming the world’s most seriousthreat.

"For obvious reasons the coup against President Mohamed Morsi has been compared to the coup against [former Chilean president Salvador] Allende. Emotionally the picture is compelling: democratically elected presidents forced out of office by generals who profoundly hated their politics and who then pursued increasingly violent campaigns against the remaining civilian opposition. In the world of American academic politics the comparison is especially powerful because it suggests that the anti-communism that drove policies a generation ago and now seems shameful and regrettable is surfacing again as “Islamophobia” or an irrational hatred of Islam. Saving democracy, a lost cause in 1973, is now possible and a moral imperative as the events of the past are replayed in a different part of the world with a different cast of characters."