Africa

Peter Ajak is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Belfer Center’s International Security Program. A South Sudanese peace activist, a scholar, former political prisoner, and a former child soldier and Lost Boy of Sudan, Ajak’s life has been consumed with the commitment to bring freedom to his people.

This spring, the Belfer Center organized a new event series called Africa in Focus to examine the many factors driving political transitions and geostrategic relations in Africa. This workshop series aims to kickstart an initiative that recruits more African policymakers and experts to discuss African politics and affairs with the Harvard Kennedy School community. 

On April 26, the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, in partnership with the HKS Africa Caucus, hosted His Excellency Dr. Martin Kimani, Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, to share his perspective on current global crises.  Ambassador Kimani made headlines earlier this year for his public rebuke of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during a speech at the UN Security Council, demonstrating the powerful role Africa can play in global affairs, in a new era of great power competition.

Thank you to the Harvard Kennedy School Africa Caucus and the Belfer Center for the opportunity to deliberate with you today. Thank you Thomas Kisimbi for the kind introduction, and your generosity in taking your valuable time to shaping this event and my time at Harvard.

In this issue, we highlight five new books by Belfer Center members.

The panel considers how the US, UK and EU can contribute to a global response. It also asks what a global response to the health and economic crisis in the developing world would look like.

This Q&A focuses on Erica Chenoweth, Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and a Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Her research focuses on political violence and its alternatives. Foreign Policy magazine ranked her among the Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2013. Her forthcoming book, Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know, explores what civil resistance is, how it works, why it sometimes fails, how violence and repression affect it, and the long-term impacts of such resistance.

This Q&A focuses on Zoe Marks, Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. Her research and teaching interests focus on the intersections of conflict and political violence; race, gender and inequality; peacebuilding; and African politics. Her current book project examines the internal dynamics of rebellion in Sierra Leone to understand how and why rebel groups can sustain a viable threat to the state without widespread support.