Blog
Why the Marshall Plan is Not a Model for Africa
There have been appeals for quite some time for a “Marshall Plan” for Africa to help governments on the continent and their populations to advance to a point where poverty is minimized and economic progress on the continent can be achieved. ...
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Building a Successful U.S.-Africa Policy
Over my years working on Africa – both in and out of government service – I have seen criticism of what many have described as a deficient U.S. policy toward Africa. To some extent, our government’s Africa policies and actions certainly have...
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Ethnicity Is the Enemy of Democracy
When Americans think of democracy, we see it as a means to unite people across regions and supposedly across ethnic lines to govern our country, although the latter is less true than it should be. Black and white people as a whole think very...
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Mining Africa’s Future
Africa has been blessed with abundant natural resources, but one might also say that the continent’s blessings have often become a curse. The concept of a resource curse is one that has been explored quite a bit, including in a Congressional...
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The Unknown Impact of COVID-19 in Africa
As the United States struggles to dig itself out of the tremendous economic and social hole created by the COVID-19 virus, there are those who look at Africa and say the nations of the continent have done far better than America or other developed...
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Understanding Africa’s Political Landscape
Two recent op-eds in the Washington Times have compelled me to write about something I often discuss with colleagues: the lack of understanding of circumstances in African countries by those determining U.S. Africa policy. This particularly impacts...
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