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In this season of holiday celebration, there is nothing but relentless darkness for the globe’s untold millions of refugees and internally displaced persons. Not only are nearly two million Gazans displaced, as well as millions of Ukrainians, but incessant wars in Africa and Asia have forced millions to flee violence. They need the world’s attention … Continue reading
Last week, Myanmar’s vastly outnumbered and outresourced opposition struck another sharp blow against the military forces that toppled the country’s incipient democracy in a coup in early 2021. Using bomb-dropping drones, units of the Brotherhood Alliance (made up of three ethnic armies) destroyed more than 250 military supply trucks carrying imports near the town of Muse, … Continue reading
Kenya has offered to help Haiti, while the U.S. and Canada still sit on the sidelines Ottawa and Washington need to intervene forcefully to save Haiti from itself. Kenya has offered 1,000 troops to help restore stability in Haiti, which is overwhelmed with uncontrolled gang warfare and violence. But in order to fix the problem, much more … Continue reading
A military coup has extinguished one of West Africa’s most democratically inclined governments – and the results are a tragedy for Niger’s 25 million people. The coup is also worrisome for the entire region, as it could result in increased Islamist penetration, giving running room and conquest potential to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and the Islamic … Continue reading
Electoral autocracy has replaced democracy’s standard free and fair election method in much of the troubled world. In Cambodia, an “election” took place on Sunday in which many opposition parties were dissolved or barred from competing against Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling party; in Guatemala, the government suspended one of the two parties standing in August’s second-round presidential runoff; … Continue reading
In the lead-up to Zimbabwe’s election, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has passed a law that puts his opponents at considerable risk. Zimbabwe is just the latest of many unfree countries, such as China, Turkey and Iran, that are using repressive tactics to prohibit criticism of those in power. Last week, Zimbabwe’s parliament, which is controlled by Mr. Mnangagwa’s ZANU-PF … Continue reading
The continuing vicious conflict between Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), originally a subordinate paramilitary group, is a contest over power and licence to plunder. Though it is deadlier and affects a larger area, it is nevertheless reminiscent of the battles over turf and territory between rival criminal gangs in Haiti and antagonistic drug trafficking … Continue reading
Haiti is in big trouble. As a geopolitical problem, it obviously ranks below the war in Ukraine, the internal conflict in Myanmar, and China’s threats to Taiwan, but no nation has collapsed so completely as Haiti. It has always been the most perilously poor, abused, dangerously corrupt failed state in the Western Hemisphere, but now … Continue reading
Nigeria, the African country called sick by even a presidential candidate, appears destined to remain that way, at least for now. This week’s contested election of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as president – with less than a third of the total vote in the continent’s most populous country – presages little fundamental change from the underwhelming, sclerotic presidency … Continue reading
Honest, forthright, visionary leadership is essential in human and political affairs, especially in these unusually troubled times. Trust in leadership translates into legitimacy, which in turn generates broad support for public-policy initiatives that may irritate sections of an electorate. Indeed, absent integrity and legitimacy, even democratic rulers struggle to lead and to accomplish meaningful change. … Continue reading
Africa and Asia: The Key Issues 