INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
AP Photo
December 9, 2011
"Science Meets Farming in Africa"
Op-Ed, Science, issue 6061, volume 334
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"Africa has a long history of exporting resources and importing food, despite the potential to meet its own food demands, reduce poverty, and drive economic growth. Unfortunately, major international agencies such as the United Nations (UN) have persistently opposed expanding biotechnology to regions most in need of its societal and economic benefits."
AP Photo
December 2011
"Africa's New Engine"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Finance & Development, issue 4, volume 48
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
Cell phone use has grown faster in Africa than in any other region of the world since 2003....Of course, South Africa—the most developed nation—still has the highest penetration, but across Africa, countries have leapfrogged technology, bringing innovation and connectivity even to remote parts of the continent, opening up mobile banking and changing the way business is done.
AP Photo
September 2011
"Seeding Diplomacy"
Op-Ed, Public Service Review
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"The rising concern over global food price volatility has put agriculture at the centre of international cooperation. But unlike the 1950s, when food aid became a major tool in international food policy, modern interactions among states are being redefined by globalisation and the associated knowledge flows. The interactions are part of a field that can be loosely referred to as agricultural diplomacy."
AP Photo
August 31, 2011
"Asian Interest Means Africa Needs New Economic Vision"
Op-Ed, CNN.com
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"The surge in interest in Africa by China and India requires a different approach that does not view the continent as a helpless victim of foreign influence. To that end African countries are seeking to replace classical foreign policy that focuses on access to markets in return for raw materials with a new vision of economic diplomacy."
AP Photo
Julio-Agosto 2011
"AgroDiplomacy: Growing Relations between Latin America and Africa"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Comments, issue 3, volume 9
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"The rising concern over global food price volatility has put agriculture at the center of international diplomacy. But unlike the 1950s when food aid became a major tool in international relations, modern interactions among states are being defined by trade and knowledge transfer. A new field — agricultural diplomacy (AgroDiplomacy) — is emerging as countries learn more about their shared ecological experiences and agricultural trade interests. The prospects for building such relations are evident in the rise in cooperation between Africa and Latin America."
AP Photo
August 2, 2011
"Famine in Somalia: What Can the World Do About It?"
Op-Ed, The Atlantic
By Robert Paarlberg, Advisory Board Member, Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project; Former Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, 2007–2008
"The international community can also do things beyond Somalia, and indeed beyond the exigencies of emergency food aid. Rich nations, including the United States, can start by delivering the support they have promised to build Africa's own food-production capabilities. Small farmers throughout sub-Saharan Africa need help to boost their productivity....What these farming communities need, above all else, is increased public investment in rural roads, electrical power, irrigation, clinics, schools, and agricultural research."
AP Photo
July 4, 2011
"Graziano's Five Major Challenges"
Op-Ed, The Guardian
By Lawrence Haddad and Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"Addressing this triple challenge (more food, less hunger, less environmental degradation) will require more than just funding. For the FAO to continue to serve as the world's leading authority on food and agriculture policy, it will need to reinvent itself, becoming a thought leader in ending the hunger of ideas on how to end hunger. For example, what is the role of advance market purchasing in hunger reduction? What should be done about foreign direct investment in agriculture and large-scale land acquisitions? How should food price spikes be managed? What are the benefits and risks of emerging food and agricultural technologies? The FAO needs to be leading the debates in these and other areas."
AP Photo
June 20, 2011
"Building Africa Bloc by Bloc"
Op-Ed, The East African
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"The map of Africa as a hopeless collection of failing post-colonial economies is being redrawn before our very eyes. Credit should go to African leaders for their stubborn refusal to accept the future as predicted by others but to seek to change it. As they say, for Africa, the future is not what it used to be."
AP Photo
June 13, 2011
"Stop Demonising Foreign Investors in Agriculture, They're Not Grabbing Land"
Op-Ed, 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
"Nearly 60 per cent of the world's available arable land is in Africa. What is needed is a vision among African leaders that would help the continent to contribute to global food needs while fostering local prosperity. Efforts to achieve this have already been started through foreign investments in agriculture."
Summer 2011
Belfer Center Newsletter Summer 2011
Newsletter
By Sharon Wilke, Associate Director of Communications
The Summer 2011 issue of the Belfer Center newsletter features analysis and advice by Belfer Center scholars regarding the historic upheavals in the Middle East and the disastrous consequences of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The Center’s new Geopolitics of Energy project is also highlighted, along with efforts by the Project on Managing the Atom to strengthen nuclear export rules.
