The world continues to focus on events in the Maghreb and beyond. And while I don’t want to get into any unnecessary hierarchy-of-suffering debates, I will maintain that what is going on in Cote d’Ivoire is every bit as important and more potentially destabilizing than what is going on in Libya.
Violence continues to spread in Abidjan and beyond. Four people were killed by unidentified gunmen yesterday in the country’s commercial capital and administrative center where a grenade also went off, killing one and wounding a score or more.
And it seems increasingly as if Laurent Gbagbo, who insists on holding on to power despite clearly losing November’s election to Alassane Ouattara. Ouattara, meanwhile, has made a series of gestures in hopes of achieving a workable solution, which is to say Ouattara is operating from the back foot. As so often happens in these situations, the presumptive loser has the recognized winner right where he wants him. Ouattara is probably doing the right thing, but he has few options. Meanwhile Gbagbo inexplicably has even garnered some support from other African leaders, including Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
The drumbeat of civil war thus continues to pound unless Ouattara simply concedes, which would establish a precedent that, if not worse than civil war, may not be much better.
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 […]
