Africa

78 Items

Jens Stoltenberg speaks to students at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Bennett Craig

Speech

The Three Ages of NATO: An Evolving Alliance

| Sep. 23, 2016

Jens Stoltenberg,NATO Secretary General, discussed the future of the NATO alliance during this speech, given at the Harvard Kennedy School on September 23, 2016. He described the alliance as a responsive organization, capable of adapting to changes in the international security landscape but committed to the continuity of its founding values. In particular, he emphasized the necessity of maintaining a policy of absolute solidarity among member states, especially  in light of the exacerbating civil war in Syria and Russia’s aggressive stance toward countries to the East of NATO member state borders.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe presents medals to soldiers who have fought in the Congo, Tuesday, August 13, 2002.

AP

Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security

The Origins of Transnational Alliances: Rulers, Rebels, and Political Survival in the Congo Wars

    Author:
  • Henning Tamm
| Summer 2016

Alliances between local combatants and neighboring rulers played a crucial role in the Congo Wars. Yet the transnational dimensions of the conflicts remain understudied. Case studies reveal that the rulers of Angola, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda, and Zimbabwe intervened in Congo to secure their own political survival. They forged alliances to thwart domestic rebels supported by foreign rulers or to gain access to resources that could ensure the loyalty of domestic elites.

Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon holds a press conference in Ramallah on July 22, 2014.

Getty Images/Anadolu Agency

Analysis & Opinions - Agence Global

Finally, a sensible — but difficult — path to reducing terrorism

| January 20, 2016

"The difference between the sensible and superficial approaches to tackling the scourge of terrorism and other forms of violent extremism by groups such as “Islamic State” (ISIS) was as clear as possible last week, in two efforts by the US government and the United Nations secretary general, Ban-Ki moon. For all those puzzled people around the world who ask what we must do to defeat ISIS and others like it, I suggest taking half an hour to read and really ponder the proposals offered by the UN secretary-general..."

Iraqi security forces stand next to their vehicles as they clear al-Sajarya district on the eastern outskirts of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, on January 17, 2016, a few weeks after declaring victory against the Islamic State (IS) group.

Getty Images/M. Al-Dulaimi

Analysis & Opinions - Agence Global

Think again, guys…’bomb away’ is not an effective policy

| January 16, 2016

"The main problem is that foreign military actions tend to achieve exactly the opposite of the intended goals. Military assaults against terror groups, resistance movements, and just plain old civilian demonstrators or non-violent rebels — whether carried out by local governments or foreign powers, or both — tend to harden and expand the resolve of those who challenge the states in question..."

Audio

Podcast: "Security States, Failed States, Islamic States: The Causes and Consequences of the Crisis of Arab Statehood" with Rami Khouri

| December 22, 2015

An audio recording of a public talk by Rami Khouri, MEI Non-Resident Senior Fellow; Senior Fellow, Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy, American University of Beirut; Syndicated Columnist.

Analysis & Opinions - Foreign Policy

The Cold Realism of the Post-Paris War on Terror

| November 20, 2015

"...[W]e now know that the notion that regime change leads to a better democratic or a humanitarian outcome is decidedly false. From Iraq, where the West tried a heavy footprint strategy, to Libya, where it opted for a light one, the idea that Europe or the United States can actually execute democratic change by force has been exposed as a fallacy."