• US Predators in Africa: A Disturbing Phenomenon

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    Derrick Kitiku

    Of the most disturbing military developments in Africa- the salient arms race among African countries and the near purchase of damaged strategic military equipment from China- none is more troubling than the stealth expansion of US drone bases. The idea that more drone bases and UAV operations should be expanded to fight al-Qaida is a perversion of the war on terror. This subtle yet insidious aspect of airspace security and evolving military equation will eventually cause incalculable injury to overall defense system of African states.  The short term effects of this menacing development may look so subtle that it will largely go unnoticed until it is too late to reverse its long-term consequences. For full text go the blog http://www.currentanalyst.com/blog/?p=108

    Last Updated on Tuesday, 05 February 2013 11:50
 
  • Rene Lefort on Medhane's Paper: Meles Zenawi and the Ethiopian State

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    If I understand Medhane well, it’s “the widespread democratic aspiration of Ethiopians”, which makes the developmental state needs to be revisited. Taking the risk of being politically incorrect, I would question the nature and the range of this aspiration. 

    Last Updated on Monday, 05 November 2012 00:15
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  • Can Nigeria’s internal contradictions be mediated?

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    Funmi Olonisakin

     

    The Nigerian state is riddled with internal contradictions, the zero sum nature of which further compounds its complexity. Indeed, the Nigerian state is confronted by a crisis of authority and legitimacy, with the co-existence of multiple systems – economic, social, justice and security – in which the non-state systems are more trusted than the formal state-led systems. The failure of the political elite to make state systems more responsive and accessible to the vast majority of citizens exacerbates this crisis. The inability or perhaps unwillingness of Nigeria’s governing elite to resolve or manage the country’s contradictions raises questions about its capacity to cope with crisis on several fronts. The most recent of these have been in the Niger Delta where the attacks by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) against the state only recently subsided; and in Northern Nigeria, where a sect known as Boko Haram has escalated its campaign against the state. Download full textHDNigeriapaperRevisedOLONISAKINJune2012.doc

    Last Updated on Saturday, 28 July 2012 21:48
 
  • Meles Zenawi and the Ethiopian State

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    Meles Zenawi and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) led Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) came to power in 1991 after a sixteen-year armed struggle in the countryside. In subsequent years Meles Zenawi managed to have a disproportionate power in the Ethiopian state rising above the TPLF/EPRDF. As an instructor, theoretician, military strategist, intellectual and all-around, all-star politician of the EPRDF Meles shaped Ethiopian politics for over two decades and worked hard to sustain the political system he helped create. Consolidating his power and increasing the developmental mission of the Ethiopian state were Meles’s consuming focus. Both were inseparable. This is crucial in understanding the meaning of his death and its impact on the nature of political power in Ethiopia. And equally important, to understand what this says about the character of the Ethiopian state. 

    Download full textMeles Zenawi and the es2.pdf

     

    Last Updated on Sunday, 14 October 2012 21:10
 
  • The Egyptian elections and their aftermath

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    Gerard Prunier

    It is a reality play , not a morality one , between one traditional Establishment (the Army , as inheritor of the old Turkish “hukum”) and an aspiring one basing itself on a highjacked vision of Islam (the Muslim Brotherhood) . The heart of the matter is that the deep Egyptian crowds want neither but are not capable of expressing themselves because they lack the organisational structures enabling them to translate their fundamental aspirations into a coherent political reality.

    Last Updated on Sunday, 22 July 2012 06:17
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