NORTH AFRICA
September 19, 2009
"The US Must Help Rebuild Somalia"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution
This week's US raid in Somalia that killed Al Qaeda operatives removed dangers to the United States and its allies, but did little to bring progress to one of the least governed places in the world.
AP Photo
November 24, 2008
"Somali Piracy Reflects a Troubling World"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
"Human beings should have as much right to security and the protection of the rule of law as ships carrying oil, tanks, cars and tennis shoes. That is a resonate lesson behind the Somali piracy -- at least in the Arab world."
AP Photo
October 5, 2008
Strengthening African Governance: Small States and Islands Top 2008 Rankings
Press Release
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution
Small states, island states, and Botswana and South Africa are the best governed countries in sub-Saharan Africa according to this year's Index of African Governance, released today by researchers at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Mauritius, an Indian Ocean island-state, tops the list of well-governed territories for the second year, the Seychelles is second, Cape Verde third, Botswana fourth, and South Africa fifth.
AP Photo
September 3, 2008
"Elegant Colonialism"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
It seems quite obvious to many of us that Italy's new agreement with Libya -- with its explicit apology and reparations for the colonial era -- is a new and disguised form of colonialism.
April 28, 2008
International Security Program "Paths to Violence" Research Workshop
News
The International Security Program (ISP) at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs hosted a research workshop in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on April 25, 2008. Workshop organizers Erica Chenoweth (ISP) and Adria Lawrence (ISP/Intrastate Conflict Program) brought together leading scholars to explore the conditions under which non-state actors resort to violence and the various strategies state actors use to address aggrieved populations. Workshop participants addressed issues such as why the use of violence varies among non-state actors, how the decision to use violence affects strategic outcomes of internal and international conflicts, and how states arrive at decisions to accommodate, assimilate, or ethnically cleanse minority groups. Participants received feedback on original research papers prepared in advance of the workshop. The final drafts of the papers will be compiled into an edited volume, which will be submitted for review in fall 2008.
April 22, 2008
"It's Not the Price That Causes Hunger"
Op-Ed, International Herald Tribune
By Robert Paarlberg, Former Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, 2007-2008
"Africa's food crisis grows primarily out of the low productivity, year in and year out, of the 60 percent of all Africans who plant crops and graze animals for a living. The average African smallholder farmer is a woman who has no improved seeds, no nitrogen fertilizers, no irrigation and no veterinary medicine for her animals. Her crop yields are only one third as high as in the developing countries of Asia, and her average income is only $1 a day."
Winter 2007-2008
"School, Center Alum Robert Zoellick Takes Reins of World Bank"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
Robert Zoellick, International Security Program research fellow (1999-2000) and Kennedy School alumnus, was appointed in July 2007 as the 11th president of the World Bank, the international poverty-alleviating organization owned by 185 member countries.
Winter 2007-2008
"Notable Quotes"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
Quotes on Newsmakers Page
December 10, 2007
"Big Tent"
Op-Ed, The New Republic
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"...in recent years, Qaddafi has appeared to be changing. He still wants to project Libyan power, but he is going about it differently than in decades past. Where once he had tried to bully and even overthrow governments to his south, now he is hosting peace talks on Darfur....Has Qaddafi really changed? It is difficult to know for sure.... his future actions will speak louder than any current words. But there is no doubt that he acts differently on the world stage today than he did in decades past."
AP Photo
December 2007
"Draining the Sea by Filling the Graves: Investigating the Effectiveness of Indiscriminate Violence as a Counterinsurgency Strategy"
Journal Article, Civil Wars, The Origins and Effectiveness of Insurgent and Counterinsurgent Strategies, issue 4, volume 9
By Alexander B. Downes, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 2007-2008
"It is commonly believed in the literature on insurgency and counterinsurgency that to be effective in undermining civilian support for guerrillas, violence against noncombatants must be selective or risk alienating the population. Yet cases exist where governments have defeated insurgencies by wielding indiscriminate violence against noncombatants. This paper explores the conditions under which such violence can be effective through a case study of British counterinsurgency strategy in the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902)."
