Regions

South Africa has produced more than its share of great golfers. And yet Trevor Immelman's victory in today's Masters at Augusta National made him the first South African winner of a green jacket since the incomparable Gary Player won in 1978. This was Immelman's tournament and Immelman's week. He was unflappable playing from the lead […]

The New York Times has a great piece on the dismissal of 1,300 soldiers and policemen in the wake of the Basra offensive. Stephen Farrell writes that there have been revelations “more than 1,000 members of the security forces had laid down their weapons during the fight“. There were a multitude of reasons behind the […]

In yet another sign that Turkmenistan is coming out of its isolationist shell, Ashgabat just finished hosting a meeting between the European Union's Troika and Central Asia's foreign ministers. The Troika is headed by Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, EU External Relations Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, and the EU's special representative for […]

At The Washington Realist Nikolas Gvosdev makes a salient point about how the Western powers have a tendency to blame China for the instability in the Sudan (and to a lesser extent places such as Zimbabwe) and then use China's (admittedly noxious) behaviors as a cover for their own inaction.

Michael Gerson of The Washington Post has an op-ed in which he shows how an initiative to address the AIDS crisis in Zambia has met with remarkable results. Gerson's conclusion? That programs such as the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) reveal that “that the next step in the AIDS crisis is not only […]

Kenya (more famously) and Nigeria have both been dealing with fraught internal negotiations regarding the inner workings of government. The stalemate over the composition of the cabinet (and thus the dynamics of power) continues in Kenya. Outside observers, including the British, have advised that Mwai Kibaki's side be willing to give up some seats in […]

As most Zimbabweans still struggle to survive and to access the basics — bread, toilet paper, and the like, the prospect of chaos hovers around them. The story remains largely the same — lots of news, little actual information. The Southern African Development Community plans to meet to address the Zimbabwe situation. Zambia's Levy Mwanawasa, […]

The Los Angeles Timeshas an excellent blog on the Middle East, Babylon and Beyond, and I am not just saying that because they have added this to their blogroll.  I am reasonably sure the Times will do fine without my endorsement.   I am linking it because of an interesting article on the death of Hezbollah […]

Has anti-immigrant xenophobia reached new lows in South Africa? Attacks on migrants have increased in recent months and many worry that this marks a disturbing trend. IRIN has a report.

It is the most potent and dangerous arrow remaining in Mugabe's quiver. More daunting than corruption, more destructive than his alliances with the power structure, Mugabe's ability to marshal violence is the biggest remaining X-factor remaining in whether or not he clings tenaciously to power. That violence might come in the myriad security forces at […]

Unrest and fear of worse to come has again taken hold in Kenya as the country's political stalemate has again spilled out into the streets. While some commentators have taken to dreaming of future hopes, such as Uhuru Kenyatta, son of Jomo Kenyatta, most Kenyans are caught up in the here and now. I wrote […]

    The Asian Development Bank (ADB), an organization dedicated to poverty reduction in Asia and the Pacific, has come out with their Asian Development Outlook 2008 report, analyzing the Central Asian and Caucasus economies.  Overall, the report finds that the states of these regions have had significant economic growth in the past few years, but […]