Africa Center Commentary & Analysis

Through high-level relationships and a track record of well-respected analysis, the Africa Center speaks directly to the stakeholders who matter, shaping policy on the foremost issues of this dynamic continent.

New Atlanticist

Jul 11, 2011

South Sudan: Free at Last! Now What?

By Peter Pham

The birth this past weekend of the Republic of South Sudan as the world’s newest independent state is, in many respects, a triumph for the Atlantic community’s diplomatic efforts in general and United States leadership in particular.  The acceptance of the possibility of secession was the central feature of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) […]

East Africa

New Atlanticist

Jun 23, 2011

Morocco Bets on Reform

By Peter Pham

At a time when, as the experts assembled at a symposium earlier this month hosted by the Atlantic Council’s Ansari Africa Center noted, the fate of both the “Arab Spring” in general and the North African revolutions in particular remain far from certain, Morocco has made an audacious bet with the new constitution that King […]

Event Recap

Jun 6, 2011

Africa in the 21st Century and the Next Chapter in U.S.-Africa Relations

On June 6, 2011, the Michael S. Ansari Africa Center hosted H.E. Ali Bongo Ondimba, President of the Gabonese Republic, at the Atlantic Council. President Bongo gave a keynote speech in which he discussed the changing face of Africa in the 21st century, highlighting especially the reforms which have helped make Gabon an emerging country, […]

Africa

Transcript

Jun 6, 2011

Transcript: Africa in the 21st Century and the Next Chapter in U.S.-Africa Relations

Full transcript from the June 6, 2011 Africa Center event “Africa in the 21st Century and the Next Chapter in U.S.-Africa Relations” featuring H.E. Ali Bongo Ondimba, President of the Gabonese Republic.

New Atlanticist

May 18, 2011

Somaliland at 20

By Peter Pham

Today is the twentieth anniversary of the day when, in the wake of the collapse of the Somali state, clan elders in the onetime British Protectorate of Somaliland proclaimed their sovereignty. In the two decades since, while the rest of the country became the exemplar par excellence of a failed state, one best known today […]

AQIM

New Atlanticist

May 2, 2011

Al Qaeda’s franchises after Osama Bin Laden

By J. Peter Pham

The death of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at the hands of Navy SEALs brings to a close a chapter that began more than fifteen years ago when the terrorist group declared war on the United States. As President Barack Obama noted in his address to the nation, “Justice has been done.” While pundits […]

Africa Extremism

New Atlanticist

Apr 21, 2011

Securing North Africa’s oasis of stability

By J. Peter Pham

As the cloud of uncertainty continues to hover North Africa—with the ultimate outcomes of the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt still to be determined and unrest spreading in Algeria, especially in the Kabylie region, to say nothing of the fate of the revolt in Libya—it is somewhat befuddling that the Obama administration has not done […]

North & West Africa Sahel

New Atlanticist

Apr 19, 2011

Goodluck’s Win—and Nigeria’s

By Peter Pham

 When on Monday evening Attahiru Jega, chairman of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), declared incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan the winner of the country’s presidential election, he modestly declared, “We have done our best to satisfy the aspirations of Nigerians for free, fair, and credible elections.”

New Atlanticist

Apr 6, 2011

What Next in Ivory Coast?

By Peter Pham

As the Ivory Coast’s former president, Laurent Gbagbo, stubbornly clings to power, his writ confined to a bunker under his house in the commercial capital of Abidjan and surrounded only by his combative wife Simone and a coterie of diehard supporters, the relevant questions are less about the fate of the besieged strongman than what […]

New Atlanticist

Apr 4, 2011

Why Nigeria Matters

By Peter Pham

With everything from the ongoing fighting in Libya to the massive anti-regime protests in Yemen to the vicious endgame playing itself out in Côte d’Ivoire all happening at once, policymakers and analysts might be forgiven for not having paid much attention to the two postponements over the weekend of the Nigerian parliamentary elections which were […]

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