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Strongmen Are Weaker Than They Look

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Steven A. Cook | March 2, 2018 |Foreign Policy Authoritarians are on the rise around the world, but history shows they’re mostly helpless. When Muammar al-Qaddafi came in from the cold in the mid-2000s, the “mad dog” of the Middle East embarked upon top-down reforms that were friendly to international markets, investors, the United States, and Europe. Although he became … [Read more...] about Strongmen Are Weaker Than They Look

Mugabe’s Misrule And How It Will Hold Zimbabwe Back

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Martin Meredith | March/April 2018 Issue | Foreign Affairs In a radio broadcast that Robert Mugabe made from exile in 1976, during the guerrilla war he was leading to overthrow white-minority rule in Rhodesia, he set out his views about the kind of electoral democracy he intended to establish once he had gained control of Zimbabwe, as the new state was to be named. “Our … [Read more...] about Mugabe’s Misrule And How It Will Hold Zimbabwe Back

Ethiopia’s state of emergency 2.0

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Awol K Allo | 20 Feb 2018 | Aljzeera.com The purpose of this emergency is not to protect the constitutional order but to silence the voices calling for change. Last Friday, the Ethiopian government declared a six-month nationwide state of emergency, invoking a grave threat to the constitutional order. The emergency, the second in less than a year, was announced a day after … [Read more...] about Ethiopia’s state of emergency 2.0

African Deportations Are Creating a Religious Controversy in Israel

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Emma Green  | 30 Jan 2018 | The Atlantic Thousands of vulnerable migrants may soon be deported, which many Jews see as inconsistent with their faith. TEL AVIV—Around 9:30 p.m. on a recent weekday night, four men sat waiting on the sidewalk outside Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority office. In a broken mix of Hebrew, English, and Arabic, they told me they were … [Read more...] about African Deportations Are Creating a Religious Controversy in Israel

American Sh*thole

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Dayo Olopade | January 17, 2018 | Foreign Policy The biggest problem with many African countries is that they're led by men like Trump.  U.S. President Donald Trump’s reported comments maligning the people of African nations were a foreseeable outburst from a man addicted to the cable news culture that consistently portrays the continent in a negative light. They were … [Read more...] about American Sh*thole

Congo’s Slide Into Chaos: How a State Fails

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Stuart A. Reid | January/February 2018 Issue | Foreign Affairs On January 16, 2001, the Democratic Republic of the Congo tumbled into uncertainty. The country’s president, Laurent Kabila, had been sitting in his office at his marble palace in Kinshasa, the capital, when one of his teenage bodyguards entered, drew his pistol, aimed it at Kabila, and fired several … [Read more...] about Congo’s Slide Into Chaos: How a State Fails

This Land Is Their Land

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Suketu Mehta Illustration by Owen Freeman | September 12, 2017 | Foreign Policy Immigration is inevitable. When will the West learn that it promises salvation — not destruction? On Oct. 1, 1977, my parents, my two sisters, and I boarded a Lufthansa plane in the dead of night in Bombay. We were dressed in new, heavy, uncomfortable clothes and had been seen off by our entire … [Read more...] about This Land Is Their Land

All Is Not Forgiven: South Africa and the Scars of Apartheid

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Sisonke Msimang | January/February 2018 Issue | Foreign Affairs In old black-and-white photographs, the antiapartheid activist Ahmed Timol looks elegant, with an open face and a ready smile. One classic shot captures him midstride. Clad in dark sunglasses with a pipe dangling from his mouth, he has the dashing air of a 1950s film star. Shortly after that photo was taken, … [Read more...] about All Is Not Forgiven: South Africa and the Scars of Apartheid

Deep Pockets, Deep Cover: The UAE Is Paying Ex-CIA Officers to Build a Spy Empire in the Gulf

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Jenna McLaughlin Illustration by Taylor Callery | December 21, 2017 | Foreign Policy They hired Americans to professionalize their intelligence service. But how far can former U.S. spies go? Not far from the northeastern Zayed Port in Abu Dhabi, in a typical modern Gulf villa framed on one side by an elegant swimming pool, Westerners are teaching Emiratis the tools … [Read more...] about Deep Pockets, Deep Cover: The UAE Is Paying Ex-CIA Officers to Build a Spy Empire in the Gulf

What Vladimir Putin Really Wants in the Middle East

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Masha Kirasirova | December 15, 2017 | Foreign Policy A new book translates Russia’s fears and hopes for Syria, and the wider region, for an American audience. On Nov. 20, 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad issued a joint statement from the Black Sea resort town of Sochi about the end of Russia’s military operations in Syria. The … [Read more...] about What Vladimir Putin Really Wants in the Middle East