All of my colleagues at the various Foreign Policy Association Blogs are doing wonderful work and I hope that you are reading all of them regularly even if your main interests lie in African affairs. (And I want to thank you if your interests lie elsewhere but you came over here anyway.)
In recent weeks Sean Murphy at the FPA Global Film Review Blog has written a number of posts, with video links (as you’ve probably noticed, I am fairly bells and whistles free here at the Africa Blog — something I am going to try to rectify) pertaining to Africa. You should check out his work on The Battle of Algiers (1966), General Idi Amin Dada (1974), Ghosts of Rwanda (2004), The Devil Came on Horseback (2007), and Darfur Now* (2007). Please check out these fine, concise reviews and some of the video footage provided.
*I am wary of some of the shallow activism embodied in Darfur Now, which has its heart in the right place and time, but which, like so much about Darfur, tends to simplify it all into self-righteous can-do-ism, or what Texas in Africa calls “badvocacy.”
A few months ago, I wrote about the early stages of the conflict in Ukraine through the lens of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. While it appears likely that the war will carry on into the foreseeable future, enough time has passed for us to make an honest assessment of each side’s relative […]
The Ukrainian Army has made dramatic strides in the last few weeks. Ukraine’s tactical commanders have outfoxed their Russian counterparts, and by issuing a feint towards the south the UA has been able to earn substantial gains in the north of their country. The impact of these efforts have been compounded by the steady stream […]
In mid-May the Irish political party, Sinn Féin, won the plurality of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Many American readers might not fully understand the significance of Sinn Féin’s political victory- but rest assured that subjects of the United Kingdom and a wide range of political movements the world over have heard the message […]
The first wave of the Russian offensive in Ukraine has fallen short of Russian autocrat Vladmir Putin’s ambitions. Most analysts deduced that Putin had hoped to achieve a decapitation strike of the Ukrainian government- taking Kiev and replacing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zolinski with a pro-Kremlin voice. Kiev has been threatened repeatedly through the course of […]
On the weekend of March 26th, the notorious MS-13 gang went on a massive killing spree in El Salvador which left more than 70 people dead by Sunday. Even for a country where powerful gangs hold massive sway, this recent tragedy stands out considering that it was the bloodiest day on record since the civil […]
