Programs

The Atlantic Council’s Africa Center promotes dynamic geopolitical partnerships with African states and helps redirect US and European policy priorities toward strengthening security and bolstering economic growth and prosperity on the continent.

Content

New Atlanticist

Oct 14, 2009

Darfur: The World Averts Its Eyes

By Don Snow

One of the offshoots of the current fixation with Afghanistan is that it tends to redirect our attention away from other crises in the world that might otherwise attract our attention, and even possibly corrective action.

Sudan

New Atlanticist

Aug 11, 2009

Somali Pirates: Al Qaeda’s Navy?

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

Hollywood’s glamorization of the Barbary Pirates over the years blurred the horror of a seaborne plague. Between 1530 and 1789, some 1.5 million European Christians and Jews, and American sailors and travelers, were kidnapped and enslaved in Islamic North Africa.

Somalia

New Atlanticist

Jul 13, 2009

Africa’s Future: The West’s Role

By Derek Reveron

President Obama concluded weeks of travel not in Russia or Italy, but in Ghana. While there less than a day, he outlined four areas of partnership that begins, in his words, “from the simple premise that Africa’s future is up to Africans.”

Africa

New Atlanticist

Jun 29, 2009

Center of the French Speaking World Shifts to Africa

By Douglas Muir

If you’re a human being who speaks French, you’re more likely to be African than European. La Francophonie’s demographic center of gravity is now somewhere around Bamako, Mali. If you’re a human being who is literate in French — say, at a high school graduate level — you’re probably European. But not for much longer.

France Sahel

New Atlanticist

Apr 24, 2009

Tactical Options for Fighting Somali Pirates

By Raymond Pritchett

There have been a number of ideas floated regarding options for dealing with the pirate activity around the coast of Somalia.

Somalia
NATO Somali Pirates

New Atlanticist

Apr 19, 2009

NATO Foils Pirate Attacks

By James Joyner

NATO forces thwarted two pirate attacks over the weekend. BBC reports that an attempted attack on a Norwegian tanker was “foiled by NATO warships and helicopters after an overnight pursuit in the Gulf of Aden.”  Dutch commandos also freed 20 Yemeni fishermen who had been taken hostage, Reuters reports. 

Somalia

New Atlanticist

Apr 14, 2009

Taking On Somali Piracy

By Harlan Ullman

Sunday’s rescue of Richard Phillips, the skipper of the Maersk Alabama, from Somali pirates brought home an old story.

Somalia

New Atlanticist

Apr 8, 2009

Game Changer in Somalia? Not yet

By Derek Reveron

The seizure of the M/V Maersk Alabama represents a first in the recent increase in ship hijackings in the vicinity of Somalia. It is the first US-flagged vessel to be seized and its crew are the first Americans to be kidnapped by Somali pirates.  While significant, this does not necessarily make it a problem for […]

Somalia

New Atlanticist

Apr 8, 2009

Somali Pirates Capture U.S. Vessel, World Attention

By James Easaw

Over the past week, there has been a rash of maritime hijackings off the East African coast after what had been something of a lull.  But New Atlanticist readers were not surprised.

Somalia

New Atlanticist

Feb 13, 2009

US and Russian Navy Arrest 26 Somali Pirates

By James Joyner

 U.S. Navy and Russian warships arrested 26 suspected Somali pirates this week, Andrew Njuguna reports for AP.

Somalia

Experts