April, 2012

Senegal: Africa’s Exception?

With all that has been going on in the Middle East and Africa in the past year, whether it be the still reverberating echoes of the events of last year’s Arab Spring or the more recent coup d’état in Mali, there is a story of great significance that has not…

Has Europe Weathered the Storm?

An unfamiliar calm sits over the continent of Europe as Eurozone members buckle-up by implementing tight austerity measures and tough structural reforms. With less talk of crisis and disintegration, and waning public discontent (with the exception of Greece), the untiring turmoil of the Eurozone debt crisis seems finally to have tired….

Acid Attacks: A Reflection on the State of Pakistan

March 28, 2012, a Pakistani woman named Fakhra Yunus jumps to her death from her 6th floor apartment building in Rome. Having suffered acid attacks at the hands of her husband, she has now become the disfigured face of the forgotten and marginalized women in conservative Muslim Pakistan. The Washington…

South Sudan: Oil, War, and Kony2012

The border clashes that erupted on March 26 between Sudan and the newly independent state of South Sudan have once again pushed the two nations to the brink of war. Sadly, this seemingly inherent predicament of North-South animosity – and the consequent regional instability it has caused – is hard…

Another Military Coup in Africa?

On the 21st of March the world was confronted with an all too familiar image: African leaders dressed in military uniforms rather than the tie-wearing garb of civil servants. The Western world came to the same conclusion yet again, namely that here was yet another African nation denouncing the Western…

Where did the Egyptian Revolution take us?

Over the last year, deep turmoil has hit the Arab world. Since Tunisian fruit vendor Mohammed Bouazizi’s self-immolation in December 2010, the regional landscape has undergone seismic shifts. Tunisia held free and fair elections and is doing relatively well. Libya is emerging from a civil war that invited NATO military…