Africa’s Reluctant Fertility Transition.  Richard Cincotta, Current History, May 2011, pp. 184-190. "Fertility decline and a maturing age structure typically prove more indicative of future human development . . . than do shifts toward economic or political liberalization. Why should it be any different south of the Sahara?" READ MORE

Kabila’s Congo: Hardly “Post-Conflict” Thomas Turner, Current History, May 2011, pp. 196-200. "The real question is not whether Kabila will win reelection, but how he has survived for 10 years in the presidency." READ MORE

The Fertile Continent: Africa, Agriculture's Final Frontier. Roger Thurow, Foreign Affairs, Nov/Dec 2010, pp.102-111."With one billion people already going hungry and the world's population rising, global food production must urgently be increased. The countries that managed such surges in the past-Brazil, China, India, the United States-cannot do so again. But Africa can-if it finally uses the seeds, fertilizers, and irrigation methods common everywhere else." READ MORE

The Political Economy of African Responses to the U.S. Africa Command. A Carl LeVan. Africa Today, Fall 2010,  pp. 2-24. "In February 2007, when the United States unveiled a consolidated military command for Africa, commonly called AFRICOM, it unexpectedly encountered negative reactions. The Department of Defense (DOD) attributed these responses to a public-relations failure. Numerous scholars now question this explanation, and contradictory statements continued even after DOD acknowledged its blunders. I test an alternative explanation for African reactions using a content analysis of more than five hundred African news reports. The results show that support for AFRICOM corresponded with greater aid dependence, and that countries sustaining high levels of growth with less foreign aid were more critical of AFRICOM. The critics included key American allies. The findings suggest that good economic performance increases the latitude African countries have when responding to U.S. policy leverage." READ MORE

Putting Africa's House in Order to Deal with Developmental Challenges. Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, , Sep 2010, pp. 12-15. "Operating on the premise that nuclear weapons should be limited to the few countries now possessing them (U.S., Russia, Britain, France, China, Israel, India, and Pakistan), the U.S. government has led an international campaign against the acquisition of nuclear weapons technology by other countries, particularly those deemed hostile to Western interests, such as Iran and North Korea. Since South Africa destroyed the nuclear arsenal of the former apartheid state and Libya gave up its nuclear ambitions, the only relevant issue with respect to Africa's role in the spread of nuclear weapons is the question of who has access to Africa's abundant supply of uranium." READ MORE

The Limits of Smart Power. David Axe, The American Prospect, Dec 2010, pp. 23-27. "Congo is the 'rape capital of the world,' according to the United Nations. The problem has gotten so bad that it might very well result in the ground-up 'reversal of a society's norms and values,' according to a recent report from Harvard University and the aid group Oxfam International. As bad as life is now for Congo's 35 million women and girls, it would be worse if the country totally collapsed. Such a breakdown would also be a disaster for a region struggling to emerge from 50 years of war and, frankly, for the developed world- the U.S. included. Congo isn't just some jungle backwater; it's roughly the size of Western Europe, sharing borders with 10 other countries. Underneath its tropical forest lie substantial reserves of uranium, tungsten, tin, tantalum, gold, and other valuable minerals. The Obama administration also has a strong emotional connection to Congo. Over a year ago, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed to bring American power to bear in helping reform the country's culture of rape. The tools she favors fall into a category known in Beltway circles as 'smart power' military intervention that focuses on training, construction, and humanitarian work while taking pains to avoid violence. After all, many of Congo's modern-day problems are due, in part, to decades of armed intervention by the Belgians and other colonial powers that undermined the development of functional and accountable government. READ MORE

Rhetoric from Brussels and reality on the ground: the EU and security in Africa. Alex Vines, International Affairs, September 2010, var. pp. The St-Malo agreement of December 1998 between France and the UK provided the basis for the launch by European Union (EU) governments of their European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). This agreement stated that the EU ‘must have the capacity for autonomous action, backed up by credible military forces, the means to decide to use them, and a readiness to do so, in order to respond to international crisis’. Since 1999 the EU has engaged in a series of African peace and security initiatives, and it is worth examining the effectiveness of the ESDP—or the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) as it is renamed in the Lisbon Treaty—in Africa. To date, with the exception of EU efforts in Somalia, where efforts to oppose terrorism and piracy loom large, these ESDP operations have been mounted in response to crises that do not immediately provide a threat to EU interests. They are in effect more about the EU experimenting with its own capabilities than about Africa: the EU can reach decisions more easily on Africa than on many
other parts of the world, and there is at least a theoretical understanding in the EU of the relationship between security and development. READ MORE

More Aid Is Not the Answer. Jonathan Glennie, Current History, May 2010, pp. 205-209. “Most analysts on the continent do not share donor nations’ optimism that a big push in aid will make a big difference in the lives of poor Africans.” READ MORE

China's Health Diplomacy in Africa. Jeremy Youde,China: An International Journal, March 2010, pp. 151-163."In recent years, Africa has regained a level of prominence in China's overall foreign policy strategy. Health diplomacy helps pave the way for Chinese oil companies to win mining rights for oil, platinum and other natural resources. However, a successful soft power strategy will need to consider public opinion and provide a means for connecting the health diplomacy with the larger goals." READ MORE

Africa's Forever Wars. Jeffrey Gettleman, Foreign Policy, March/April 2010, var. pages."There is a very simple reason why some of Africa's bloodiest, most brutal wars never seem to end: They are not really wars. Not in the traditional sense, at least. The combatants don't have much of an ideology; they don't have clear goals. They couldn't care less about taking over capitals or major cities -- in fact, they prefer the deep bush, where it is far easier to commit crimes. Today's rebels seem especially uninterested in winning converts, content instead to steal other people's children, stick Kalashnikovs or axes in their hands, and make them do the killing. Look closely at some of the continent's most intractable conflicts, from the rebel-laden creeks of the Niger Delta to the inferno in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and this is what you will find." READ MORE