OP-EDS
October 25, 2012
"Poor Infrastructure Is Africa's Soft Underbelly"
Forbes
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"Poor road networks illustrate this point. African farmers without adequate road networks are condemned to grow not what they can eat, but what they can carry on their heads and eat quickly before pests destroy it. As a result, nearly half of the hungry people in Africa are farmers."
AP Photo
October 18, 2012
"Foreign Policy and the Parental Perspective"
Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"In that brief moment, a real distinction between the candidates on world affairs became clear: Romney believes in the war-on-terror model of foreign policy, in which events get pasted into a larger narrative of fighting terrorism — the 'Bush doctrine' applied to Libya. Obama believes in a foreign policy that deals with each situation individually, as a challenge to be answered."
October 15, 2012
"Khadafy Son Should Be Tried by Libya"
Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"The ICC represents the proposition that newly free nations should punish their abusive former leaders through court, rather than summary execution. It suggests that a legal reckoning with the past can help countries break free of horrible legacies. Instead of challenging Libya's efforts to do just that, the ICC could have assisted in its investigation and provided the technical advice necessary to help Libya become a nation under rule of law."
October 15, 2012
"Africa's Leadership Fails Billionaire Mo Ibrahim's Test, But Technocrats Rise"
Forbes
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"The main challenge is the lack of alignment between infrastructure strategies and the need to expand engineering training. As a result, there are very few engineering programs in African universities. There is also a perception that engineering is associated with large projects that tend to be linked to high costs, corruption and ecological degradation."
AP Photo
September 25, 2012
"Dead Men Share No Secrets"
New York Times
By Marisa L. Porges, Research Fellow, International Security Program
"But this one-sided approach — always opting to kill instead of capture — is a major weakness of America's current approach to counterterrorism. It deprives us of significant amounts of intelligence about what Al Qaeda is thinking and planning, and information that could help find other senior terrorists. After all, it was intelligence from a detainee that helped American forces track down Bin Laden."
AP Photo
September 13, 2012
"It's the Syrians Who Will Pay for Murders of Americans in Libya"
Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"The argument for involvement in Syria can no longer hide behind the shadows of Libya. The tragedy will have tremendous consequences for how the United States can and will position its Syrian strategy. Libya is simply no longer a compelling piece of evidence in favor of Syrian intervention."
August 23, 2012
"Innovation Key to Unlocking Africa's Horticultural Potential"
FreshFruitPortal.com
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"Biotechnology has the promise of leading to increased food security and sustainable forestry practices, as well as improving health in developing countries by enhancing food nutrition. In agriculture, biotechnology has enabled the genetic alteration of crops, improved soil productivity, and enhanced natural weed and pest control. Unfortunately, such potential has largely remained untapped by African countries."
AP Photo
August 14, 2012
"Africa Must Wake Up to the Reality That Hunger is Now a National Security Issue"
The Daily Nation
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"The tools available to India in the 1960s are not sufficient to address the challenges that African agriculture now faces. These include a rapidly-growing population, productivity loss due to ecological disruption, environmental decay, droughts, climate change, and conflict. Biotechnology offers additional tools that can help Africa address some of these challenges. It is another moment that calls for the kind of political courage that led to the adoption of the Green Revolution."
AP Photo
August 9, 2012
"Ebola Outbreak is Quelled — This Time"
Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"Global public health efforts tend to be be focused on reproductive and family issues. But health programs are very much a part of our security — hard security — apparatus. Even if the Ebola virus never makes it to American shores, a large outbreak in one or two countries in Africa would eventually have ripple effects leading to destabilization of governments, concerns about the global economy, refugee crises, and the end of immigration access to the United States for those in the impacted countries."
AP Photo
July 20, 2012
"Islam May Be the Answer, Democracy is the Solution"
The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"The Arab world has changed in the last 40 years with the access of people to TV, the Internet and social networks....Autocratic, military-run regimes have been discredited. The people want to be treated with dignity, and to have a say in their future. Democracy is the durable element that has come out of the Arab Spring. It is a place where all can meet on a common ground, without religious-based rancors."
