By George A. Lopez Thirty years ago this week the United Nations Security Council responded to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait with mandatory, comprehensive economic sanctions. By 2000 the UNSC, led by the United States, had imposed powerful embargos in 11 other cases of threats to international peace and security. Despite developing more targeted “smart sanctions” […]
After several months of U.S’ campaign against Chinese telecom giant Huawei claiming the move was due to security concerns, United Kingdom (UK) gave in to Washington’s fear-mongering as London announced a decision to lock Huawei out of their 5G network rollout. While the U.S has always fronted what they call security concerns as the main […]
It’s time to replace gross domestic product with real metrics of well-being and sustainability. By Joseph E. Stiglitz Since World War II, most countries around the world have come to use gross domestic product, or GDP, as the core metric for prosperity. The GDP measures market output: the monetary value of all the goods and […]
And may not be the last. Johannesburg. Although it is rarely shy about spending other people’s money, the African National Congress (ANC), South Africa’s ruling party, has long been wary of the IMF. After Nelson Mandela came to power in 1994 the fund practically begged to help his new government. Mandela eventually saw the […]
Ssemanda Allawi Africa was for so long seen by some as a dark continent or a hopeless continent as the Economist once put it. However, in the last two decades, the image of Africa has been improving with experts and economists predicting the continent is on verge of take-off which has made the continent the great hope […]
In what appears to be a bizarre and unprecedented occurrence in International Relations, earlier this week, Taiwan announced that Taiwan had established diplomatic relations with Somaliland – a self-declared independent region on the coast of the Gulf of Aden. Ironically, Somaliland itself isn’t recognised by any nation in Africa neither is it recognized by United […]
Erik Sand. Scholars and strategists have long debated whether cutting off an opponent’s trade is an effective strategy in war. In this debate, success or failure has usually been judged based on whether the state subjected to economic isolation surrenders without being defeated on the battlefield. This approach, however, has missed a more important way […]
By Sameer Lalwani. Strategists of governance, economics, and geopolitics have long known that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. The Sino-Indian border crisis, which now seems under control, is no different. Scuffles in mid-May between Chinese and Indian troops appeared to escalate with People’s Liberation Army actions of unprecedented breadth, size, and coordination across multiple fronts. Though the Indian government sought to keep […]
By Miriam Gathigah In 2013, Alice Wahome ran in her third attempt to win the hotly-contested Kandara constituency parliamentary seat in Murang’a County, Central Kenya. As is typical of rural politics, the field was male-dominated, with the stakes being high for all candidates but more especially so for Wahome — no woman had ever occupied […]
By Hans Haebeke, Anymar Nyenyezi, Koen Vlassenroot As the Democratic Republic of Congo celebrates its sixtieth birthday, the country stands at an important crossroads. Marked by the struggles and protests of a population suffering from violent conflicts, predatory rule and social exclusion, after six decades the current leadership, led by President Felix Tshisekedi, has a […]