Diplomatic Pouch
After the political dust-up in Libya: deepening the Europe-Africa dialogue
On the eve of the first year anniversary of the Arab uprisings, it is useful to reflect on the state of EU-Africa relations, particularly in the aftermath of the prominent role played by key EU member states in Libya. Under the weight of United Nations Security Resolution 1973, which validated an intervention led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), Colonel Muammar Gaddafi met his death brutally on 20 October 2011 at the hands of his fellow citizens. This marked the end of Gaddafi's tempestuous relationship with the West, oscillating through various cycles - from a dangerous bogeyman in the 1980s, to ally from the late 1990s, and ultimately to the default mode of 'supreme leader' and dictator in 2011, capable of inflicting a large scale massacre on fellow Libyans in Benghazi. If Gaddafi was a pantomime villain leader in much of the West and generally unwelcome in many Arab states, public opinion in Sub-Saharan Africa showed a mixture of solidarity and compassion for Gaddafi's Libya.
African Solutions and Twitter Revolutions
The Arab Spring brought about regime change in three African states – Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Popular uprisings in other states — Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, Gabon, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Morocco and Swaziland — underscored growing public dissatisfaction about the state of governance in their countries. These events served as a re-confirmation that African citizens will not tolerate oppressive and authoritarian rule. However, short of taking to the streets, when societies believe that the ballot box will serve to subvert rather than validate their concerns, does Africa have other tools to advance governance reforms in the region, hold politicians accountable and entrench democracy?
South Africa’s development partnership agency: A burden or blessing?
Sub-Saharan Africa needs to step up and move with the times
Fresh from attending the World Economic Forum’s summer Davos in Dalian, China, I feel relatively good to be African. Our traditional European trading partners are undergoing sweeping economic changes and the prospect of sustained declines in standards of living. The US may be on the cusp of a double-dip recession and is mired in a destructive ideological fight over budgets, debt and more. New centres of economic power are engaging with us through trade and investment. Growth in sub-Saharan Africa is rapid in many countries, and likely to be sustained. Yet we cannot be complacent. Two broad, contradictory trends are at work in the global economy.
What Does BRICS mean for China?
After more than 30 years of reform and opening up, China under its fourth generation of leadership faces a big challenge to both manage its development and define its world role. Globally, with its growing influence and interests in the international system, China increasingly faces the question of how to use its power judiciously and protect its interests worldwide. Domestically, China needs to address the negative side effects of rapid economic growth over past decades to pursue a more sustainable growth path. It is against this backdrop that China proposed its peaceful development and harmonious world theories to reassure the rest of the world of its peaceful intentions and future world vision. In the current phase, China’s external engagements are becoming more actively cooperative and pro-active.
Libya: A lost opportunity for the African Union
In life realities on the ground often lay waste to the best-laid plans. So has it been for the AU in the Libyan crisis. Since the rebels entered Tripoli on August 21 the hand-wringing around the AU’s marginalisation by Nato during the campaign has reached a crescendo. In that period, the Transitional National Council (TNC) has been recognised as the legitimate government in Libya by many states, including 20 from Africa; there has been a diplomatic flurry of activity on both sides of the Mediterranean with pledges for reconstruction assistance… and oil contracts; and the Libya Contact Group met in Istanbul – all this before the AU’s Peace and Security Council meeting on August 25 and 26. Has the AU lost another opportunity and how did it come to be much less important than the Arab League on the Libyan question?
Walmart in South Africa: Creating Jobs through its Sustainable Fish Policy
Walmart’s investment in South Africa has accounted for numerous headlines during the past months. However, one of the less reported stories is how the company’s sustainable seafood policies are contributing to employment in South Africa by sustainably exploiting South Africa’s fish resources. In July 2011, Lonrho, announced that its South African headquartered seafood division, Oceanfresh, would be supplying hake fillets to 500 Walmart stores in the United States by October 2011. The agreement is expected to create over 100 direct jobs and many more indirect jobs in South Africa as Oceanfresh expands its production capabilities to meet the new orders.
Unrest in Malawi: An Economic Perspective
On Wednesday 20 July 2011, 80 civil society organisations in Malawi held a protest against the government’s handling of the economy. The protests turned violent following efforts by the police to restrain the march. Nineteen people were killed in the three main towns of Mzuzu, Lilongwe and Blantyre. Some shops were looted and cars, including those of privately-owned radio stations, were scorched.
One year after the World Cup: Africa and South Africa on the international playing field.
This time last year the world was watching an event unfold in Africa. The eyes of the world were not fixed on Africa because a civil war was unfolding or genocide was committed by a callous regime. The fixation was caused by ‘the beautiful game’ being played as South Africa hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup. This was a proud moment for South Africa and the continent. During the presentation of the South African bid on the 14 May 2004, Thabo Mbeki said that millions of Africans on the continent and the African Diaspora had ‘embarked on an exciting human journey. This is a journey away from conflict, repression and endemic poverty’. During his presentation to the executive committee of FIFA in 2008, Mbeki remarked that the Soccer World Cup “is an African journey of hope”.1
World Oceans Day: Balancing commercial and environmental needs
June 8th is World Oceans Day, an opportunity to reflect on the condition of the world’s oceans and our broader relationship with the environment. Across many fronts the news is not good. Yet in certain cases governments, NGOs and resource users have come together to form effective partnerships, proving that oceans can bounce back if given an opportunity.
Anton Hammerl – A casualty of Libya’s ‘un-civil’ war
Armed conflicts, whether big or small, create confusion as social life is disrupted by acts of organised violence. Libya’s rapid descent from street protests to armed conflict caused the country’s cities to deteriorate into blown-out ghost towns in a matter of weeks. Under conditions of conflict where belligerents lob grenades, fire bullets and bombard each other with artillery shells, the flow of information is also disrupted. It was amid the dust and bullet-ridden confusion of Libya’s battlefronts that South African born photographer, Anton Hammerl, disappeared.
The UN Security Council: Is South Africa ready for the prime time?
It is nearly four months since the rebellion started in Libya and it seems that the intervention sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has reached a stalemate. Muammar Gaddafi is still in power and while the rebels have kept their ground they have not made a significant advance on Tripoli.Thousands of civilians have lost their lives and the cost of the military campaign to the United States alone is said to be in excess of $750 million. Could the governments that voted in favour of Resolution 1973 have foreseen the stalemate and the protracted nature of the campaign? To be more specific, did South Africa foresee that our ‘yes’ vote would contribute to the seemingly endless bombardment of Libyan targets without a decisive outcome?
Syria: Many factors mitigate against the revolt
Since the long series of public holidays began, I have been called on by the electronic media to comment many times on developments in Syria. For a long time it seemed to be the only remaining large state in the Middle East unaffected by the turmoil and violence of the so-called “Arab spring”. Why was that, I kept asking. And why has it all changed as suddenly as change came to other states in the region and North Africa?
Côte d’Ivoire: Gbagbo as anti-imperialist hero is mistaken
With the conflict now ostensibly over in Ivory Coast, attention is now sure to turn to the blame game. For former President Laurent Gbagbo, and others who are likely to stand trial, it is not just the history books which are at stake, but their future freedom.
Côte d’Ivoire: The Battle of Abidjan
As the dust starts to settle on a devastated and traumatised Abidjan, attention has focused on Alassane Ouattara, now the effective, as well as elective, leader of the country. Common views in the international media are that he has to play the reconciliation card, and probably form a government of national unity to appease those who fear exclusion.
17 years since the genocide: Rwanda’s journey
In April 2011, in the midst of upheavals and revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa, Rwandans commemorate the seventeenth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide - a period of 100 days during which over a million Rwandans were slaughtered. Although the country has made significant gains in reforming its socio-economic landscape and achieving increased gender parity, many observers argue that this has come at the expense of core political freedoms.
Côte d'Ivoire: The Spectre of Warlordism
The slide towards civil war in Côte d’Ivoire looks, on the face of it, like a fight between two men in business suits. One refuses to leave power and the other wants to exercise the right bestowed on him by the country’s voters and take over as president.
Arab democracy at stake while royals protect their crown jewels
Geopolitics concerns the projection of power and influence across regional or global political-economic and social spaces. For this reason, the Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) decision to dispatch Saudi Arabian armed forces, and police from the UAE to Bahrain, does not bode well for the budding flowers of democracy trying bloom in the region.
What are the Prospects for a Renaissance of Economic Liberalism
The global economic crisis marked the end of a thirty-year chapter of economic liberalism, and opened a new one of Big Government. Twenty-first century illiberalism spread around the world. But its effects have sparked a backlash. In the US, the Tea Party movement and the Republican victory in mid-term elections signalled the electorate’s repudiation of the most leftist president and Democratic Congress since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. In Europe, some governments are trying to return to prudent management of public finances.
South Africa: mining revenue, transparency and the EITI
On 2 March 2011, the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) convened its fifth global conference in Paris, France. South Africa was represented at the conference by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, who chaired one of the key panels. Is this perhaps an indication that South Africa is reconsidering its participation in the EITI?
More Articles...
- Zuma’s Paris visit – the Africa background
- Libya’s Oil Makes all the Difference
- First Egypt, and now Yemen’s Lethal Political Cocktail is on the Boil
- Parliament: Reclaiming its position in 2011?
- What will Uganda’s Elections mean for Parliamentary Oil Governance?
- How will South Africa Talk Democracy without a Free Press?
- The G20’s Seoul Summit
- Is Nationalisation the Answer?
- Development and Climate Change...Convergent or Divergent? A Look at South Africa’s Coal Dependency and its Green Targets
- China’s Exceptionalism in Africa: from Rhetorical to Substantive Difference?
- The African Peer Review Mechanism: Positive Governance Strides in the Right Direction?
- India–South Africa Relations through the shadow of Nehru–Mbeki legacies
- Thabo Mbeki and the Long Talk to the Referendum in Southern Sudan
- Does Not Awarding African Governance Prize Signal Downward Spiral?
- The DRC at 50 - Confronting the challenges of peace and territorial consolidation
Page 1 of 5
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 Next > End >>
