A Tale of Nationalism and Dissidence
Cultural disconnect is at the heart of Cameroon’s political incongruity. Split in two, the government falls in the hands of the Francophones, natural resources in the hands of the Anglophones.
Understanding the 2013 Coup d’état in the Central African Republic
This article explores the political and economic motives behind the March 2013 Coup D’état in the Central Africa Republic, and the formation of the Séléka. This analysis also addresses the many social grievances of the country and looks towards the potential for continued unrest.
Stranded migrants, human rights, sovereignty and politics
Law, human rights and migration specialists analyze the case of the Cuban migrants who remained stranded for more than two months in Costa Rica, after Nicaragua refused to grant transit visas, truncating their voyage it to the United States. Politics, sovereignty, the application of legal instruments and the fulfillment of the migrants’ human rights: how are they balanced and prioritized as governments make decisions?
This article was originally published in Spanish by the Costa Rican magazine Firma.
Women’s Political Representation in Sri Lanka: Leading towards Prosperity or Peril
This paper argues that greater representation of women in Sri Lanka’s parliament and local government institutions, and greater gender sensitivity in general, will have substantially positive implications for the country, including accelerating the post-conflict reconciliation and recovery process.
The political Crisis of the 2017 Honduran Election
Daniel Bagheri reports on the ongoing tensions in Honduras following the 2017 national elections.
Ecuador: Protest and Power
An additional tally for the Left. Correa, a young economist endorsed by Venezuela’s Chavez, won the run-off elections in Ecuador 26 November 2006. Although he’ll will swear-in with little or no dispute over the election results, Ecuador’s presidency can appropriately be compared to the unkept roads that clamber through the Andes. Guy Hedgecoe analyzes the bumpy boulevard and shift to the left ahead.
The Logic of the Coup
The Logic of the Coup Author: Ajong Mbapndah Laurean Originally published at Peace and Conflict Monitor on 03/15/2006 In loose terms a coup d’etat can be defined as the unconstitutional action of acceding to political power, often with the use of force. The military often uses this method of taking power, and for a long […]
Structural Violence and the International Political Economy
In the contemporary world, the phenomenon we call globalization has brought to life ideas and predictions previously thought impossible. There has been a global diffusion of information technologies and communications, such as the internet, cell phones and satellite television; the facility of international travel; the increased accessibility of consumer goods and services; and the sharing of unique cultures and customs. While on the surface these realizations seem undoubtedly advantageous, they are not without their own serious downsides. Most notable is the fact that as globalization gained influence in the world, largely throughout the 1990s, the actual number of people living in poverty had increased by almost 100 million(1). To make sense of this dark irony, this increasing polarization between haves and have-nots, we must examine the underlying causes and systems driving the distribution of wealth and debt in the twenty-first century. Broadly, such a system might be referred to as the international political economy
You can’t make a deal with the dead
You cannot negotiate with dead men. MI6 and, eventually, the British government recognised that a political struggle requires a political solution. However brutal the IRA’s day-to-day terrorism, a strong, coherent republican leadership was in the strategic interest of the British state.
Post tenebras lux
The Burundi war is sordid like all the other wars in the world. For this reason it must not be singled out. Burundi is plunged into mourning by a violence that the international community, out of ignorance or oversimplification, tends to simply portray as an ethnic war between Hutus and Tutsis, fanned by ancestral antagonism between these two communities. It’s utterly wrong. The Burundi war is complex and frightfully modern. It is a war for trifling political power and control of the resources. It simply uses the most fallacious pretexts (ethnic group, region, political affiliation) to disguise its true face. In so doing, it utterly resembles so many other armed conflicts in the world