Zimbabwe

Republic of Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe, which for more than 30 years has suffered under the arbitrary and autocratic rule of Robert Mugabe, may have a chance to free itself through a democratic vote. On March 1...(full article)

A new constitution and the referendum are an important start. But there remains far to go in bringing Zimbabwe back from decades of oppression. Pressure must be maintained to ensur...(full article)

Hyperinflation looms for the Islamic Republic....(full article)

Reform of the security sector is a key part of the roadmap to free and fair elections being facilitated by South Africa, but it will be difficult to change the culture of impunity ...(full article)

A number of political reputations have been shattered over the past six months. Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Chancellor George Osborne are both shadows of what they wer...(full article)

Most Recent Articles

No Chance for Zimbabwe Democracy with Mugabe in Power - Calgary Sun

There is only one reason Zimbabwe and democracy are twains that have never met, and that reason is its autocratic dictator Robert Mugabe who, during his 32 years of totalitarian ...

The Case for Giving Tyrants an Escape Plan - Alasdair Palmer, Telegraph

Calls by the international community for 'justice' may make dictators determined to hang on to power at all costs....

Why Africa's Conflicts Never End - Jeffrey Gettleman, Foreign Policy

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...

Why Is Britain Funding Mugabe's Excesses? - David Blair, Daily Telegraph

The Mugabe-Tsvangirai government evidently believes that kitting out secondary schools is not worth a penny of Zimbabwean citizens' money, but our Department for International Deve...

Retrenchment & Liberal Internationalism Don't Fit - Duck of Minerva

It is awfully tempting to think that just a little bit more exertion, a little more defense spending, a little more covert assistance could help push through desperately needed c...

Does Africa Need an Arab Spring? - Jimmy Kainja, BBC News

An African Spring in the exact fashion of the Arab Spring would signify a step backwards - not a step forward....

2012: No Peace, No Prosperity, No Progress - Simon Tisdall, The Guardian

Worse is likely to come in conflict zones from the Middle East to Africa and for Europe's troubled economies....

How Poor Nations Prop Up Canadian Health Care - Toronto Star

As Canadians, we like to think of ourselves as a caring and generous people. And we are. But the ugly fact is we've been stripping life-saving medical talent from the very places...

The Real Legacy of Nelson Mandela - Peter Godwin, Wall Street Journal

The antiapartheid hero refused to launch a personality cult. Why have other African leaders failed to follow suit?...

Can South Africa Avoid Zimbabwe Redux? - Taylor Brodarick, Forbes

The Springboks’ unexpected 15-12 victory over the New Zealand All-Blacks in the 1995 championship match sparked jubilation across the nation and served as a unifying event for ...

Make Dictatorships Illegal - Mark Palmer & Patrick Glen, Washington Post

What the international community needs is a framework that makes clear such forms of governance are violating international law....

Why China Should Drop Its Dictator Complex - Minxin Pei, The Diplomat

Chinese policymakers are often assumed to be the archetypal practitioners of realpolitik. But their coddling of dictators is counter-productive....

Don't Bet on an African Spring - Calestous Juma, Foreign Policy

The fires of democratic revolution won't spread south after the Arab Spring. And that's a good thing....

Obama's Non-Doctrine in Africa - G. Pascal Zachary, The Atlantic

How personal experience, domestic politics, and cautious foreign policy led him to a defensive, vague, and ultimately wise approach to his father's continent....

Top Five False World Statistics - Alex Perry, Global Spin

News that last week's shocking claim that 48 women are raped every hour in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is actually a shocking piece of statistical methodology ...

A Nuremberg Lesson for Today's Tyrant Enablers - Doug Saunders, G&M

On the other hand, a successful conviction against a low-level operator such as Mr. Demjanjuk can send a more powerful message, suggesting that those who take jobs with known tyr...

War of Attrition in Zimbabwe - Patrick Smyth, Irish Times

MP DOUGLAS Mwonzora lectures on Roman law at the University of Zimbabwe. That’s when he’s not chairing parliament’s committee on constitution-drafting on behalf ...

Gbagbo Walks the Plank While Mugabe Laughs - Peter Godwin, IHT

BARELY was Laurent Gbagbo, wearing a sweat-damp white tank top and a startled expression, prodded at rebel gunpoint from the bombed ruins of his presidential bunker in Ivory Coas...

Power-Sharing Not the Answer for Libya - Christine Cheng, RealClearWorld

For weeks, the African Union (AU) has quietly been working behind the scenes to bring a diplomatic end to the violence in Libya. Last Friday, the first glimmer of a potential polit...

Mugabe Has Zimbabwe on a Knife's Edge - Roland Rudd, Daily Telegraph

Two years of economic recovery and relative peace in Zimbabwe may be the calm before the storm....

Georgia Wooing White African Farmers - Paul Rimple, Moscow Times

White South African farmers may become Georgia’s newest ethnic minority. In an effort to boost its agricultural potential, Georgia is wooing Boers dissatisfied with South A...

Tyrants Need to Get the Right Message - Grant & Petersen, Daily Telegraph

  After several weeks of what was beginning to look like dangerous strategic paralysis, Western leaders appear to be finally gearing up to put a stop to Colonel Gaddafi. Wh...

Iran's Hunt for Uranium - George Jahn, Associated Press

Iran is expanding its covert global search for the uranium it needs for its nuclear activities and a key focus is Zimbabwe, says a new intelligence report acquired by The Associate...

What Is China's Role in Zimbabwe? - Laing & Thornycroft, Daily Telegraph

As China's Foreign Minister arrives in Zimbabwe on Thursday, all eyes will be on how the country's fragile coalition government deals with overtures from the historic ally of Pres...

Sub-Saharan Africans Struggle Even as GDP Grows - Gallup

Median of 36% found it "very difficult" to live on household income in 2010....

WikiLeaks Gives Ammunition to a Tyrant - Michael Gerson, Wash Post

Julian Assange has provided ammunition to a tyrant as if he were an arms dealer....

Africa's Old Guard on the Run? - Evan Hill, Al Jazeera

Laurent Gbagbo, the embattled and disputed leader of the west African nation of Cote d’Ivoire, seems increasingly likely to be forced to step down and accept the widely condo...

Assange Hands Mugabe Killing Tool - Marc Thiessen, Enterprise Blog

Julian Assange spent Christmas at a elegant British estate outside London enjoying the life of a country gent. In a photo shoot for Newsweek, he is seen relaxing with a glass of c...

How WikiLeaks Set Back Zimbabwe - Christopher Albon, The Atlantic

In Zimbabwe, Assange's pursuit of this noble goal has provided a tyrant with the ammunition to wound, and perhaps kill, any chance for multiparty democracy....

Don't Blame WikiLeaks for Mugabe's Tyranny - Robert Rotberg, FP

WikiLeaks is just a pretext. Zimbabwe's decrepit ruler has had the knives out for opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai all along....

Robert Mugabe's Growing Grip Over Zimbabwe - Celia Dugger, NY Times

After nearly two years of tenuous stability under a power-sharing government, fears are mounting here that President Robert Mugabe is planning to seize untrammeled control of Zimba...

Why Zimbabwe's New Diamonds Imperil Global Trade - Alex Perry, Time

How badly has Zimbabwe damaged Kimberley and the diamond trade?...

U.S. Misjudged Bloodthirsty Mugabe - Joshua Hammer, The New Republic

For Western journalists visiting Zimbabwe in the middle of the last decade, a background chat with U.S. Ambassador Christopher Dell was an opportunity not to be missed. A veteran...

Wikileaks Exposes Powerless U.S. Diplomats - James Traub, Foreign Policy

The WikiLeaks cables show a U.S. diplomatic corps adept at diagnosing the big problems of American foreign policy -- and a country hopeless at solving them....

Will the U.S. Oust Robert Mugabe? - Andrew Meldrum, Global Post

Most revelations are gossip, but US strategy on Zimbabwe must get tougher....

What Happened to Democracy Promotion? - Doug Saunders, Globe & Mail

We now talk about stability, or containment, or conflict prevention. Because the word was abused so violently by Mr. Bush, it may be a generation before democracy returns to that...

World's Top Five Most Food Insecure Countries - RealClearWorld

1 of 7Following a devastating wildfire in August, Russia put a halt to its grain exports, driving up the price of wheat by 45 percent in five weeks and raising fears that another g...

Rising Powers Need to Act Like Powers - Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek

The newly rising powers - China, India, Brazil - rightly insist that they be more centrally involved in the structures of power and global decision making. But when given the opp...

The 21st-Century Land Rush - Blake Hurst, The American

The move toward securing farmland in faraway places can be seen not only as a bet on increasing food prices, but also as a hedge against a breakdown in world trade....

Final Straw for Doomed Zimbabwe - Roger Bate, Wall Street Journal

Zimbabwe is back in the news, and again for all the wrong reasons. Last week Indigenization Minister Saviour Kasukuwere announced that any firm worth more than $500,000 will be r...

Can Naomi Campbell End Blood Diamonds? - Greg Campbell, The Guardian

The supermodel is adept at drawing attention to herself - but if it can focus the world on blood diamond atrocities it's welcome....

Stop Defining Africa by Single Events - Joe Humphreys, Irish Times

The World Cup may have briefly dispelled our misperceptions but the global force of Afropessimism is likely to reassert itself quickly....

Sanctions Failed in Zimbabwe - G. Mills & T. McNamee, CS Monitor

Zimbabwe – once one of the most beautiful and bountiful lands in Africa – all but collapsed in the 2000s under the brutally repressive regime of President Robert Muga...

The Fall of the House of Mugabe - John Noonan, Weekly Standard

“Greetings in the name of freedom,” proclaimed the newly minted prime minster, Robert Mugabe, during Zimbabwe’s independence celebration in 1980. His words mark...

Zimbabwe Has Little to Celebrate - The Independent

    It is characteristic of Robert Mugabe's brazenness that, instead of passing in silence the 30th anniversary of his assumption of power, he marked the day with a gala ...

Zimbabwe