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Secretary Clinton Heads to Africa
On July 30, 2012 the White House Office of Public Engagement hosted a panel discussion on President Obama's Policy Directive on sub-Saharan Africa. The panel members included Grant Harris, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for...
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Sir James Mancham: to Speak at the Hoover Institution
Sir James ManchamIn a Press Release from Seychelles, it was announced that Sir James Mancham, the founding President, has been invited to participate in the “Global Hotspots, Insiders Briefing” program on May 3-5, 2012, at the Hoover Institution,...
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Somalia: Education is the Best Way to Defeat Al-Shabaab
In Somalia each day dozens of children twelve years and older are recruited into the ranks of al-Shabaab, the local terrorist organization. Killing an Islamist leader or two will not change the attacks they incur at home, in neighboring countries, and...
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Special Panel on Benghazi Needed for Answers
We could have learned a lesson from the terrorist attacks on the U.S. embassies in Lebanon and Kuwait in 1983. The State Department did not heed these early warnings. In 1998 terrorists again attacked two U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The State...
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State Department Failed to Protect Diplomatic Troops
“The Secretary of State has responsibility for the coordination and supervision of all U.S. government activities and operations abroad...must protect all United States Government personnel on official duty….” President George W. Bush noted in his...
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State Department: Diplomatic Security Service Failed to Protect
“After the U.S. embassy attacks in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983, the ‘Inman Advisory Panel on Overseas Security’, led to the establishment of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security in 1985.” We are living in the most crucial time in modern history since the Cold...
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Sub-Saharan Africa - Breeding a New Generation of Leaders
Robert Redford, the well-known actor, director, and filmmaker, had a vision for the Sundance Institute’s Theatre Program that embraced “What Africa can become with artistic endeavor.” My July 2012 commentary “Artistic Endeavor: Can Change the Face of...
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Sub-Saharan Africa Is Losing Ground
Note this excerpt from a story released via EurekAlert: "Warning of unrest, new study shows millions risk losing lands in Africa" Coimbra Sirica Burness Communications Jenna DiPaolo Rights and Resources Initiative “LONDON (1 February 2012)—New studies...
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Sub-Saharan Africa: Obama’s Focus on Agriculture
“Sustainable development, key to Africa’s Food Supply” I have visited over twenty-three sub-Saharan African countries since 1970, and just returned from another trip Kenya. Regardless of reports otherwise, food shortages and child malnutrition are...
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Sudan – Erratic Diplomacy at Best
Note this excerpt from a recent Reuters story: "U.S. Fears Serious Famine in Troubled Sudan Region" By Andrew Quinn WASHINGTON Tue Jan 24, 2012 3:52 pm EST “The United States fears a large-scale famine in Sudan’s restive border states of Southern...
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Sudan: A Legacy of Tribal and Ethnic Conflicts
“Africa Has a History of Irrational Borders” (Excerpts from When the White House Calls, and February 8, 2012 Commentary, Sudan- Erratic Diplomacy at Best) In the seventh-century Arab traders sailed into the various ports along the coastline of the Horn...
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Syria: Regime Change Will be Bloody Without a Diplomatic Endgame Plan
The Wall Street Journal article, “U.S. Envoy Paints Dire Syria Scenario”, of May 31, 2012, writers Joe Lauria and Nour Malas note remarks by Ambassador Susan Rice made at the UN. “Urging Security Council penalties on Syria, [Rice] sketched out an...
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The 14th Anniversary of Terrorist Attacks on America
As I sat in our New York apartment on Friday looking across Central Park I could see the early morning runners, bike riders, and people just leisurely walking through the maze of tree lined walkways. It suddenly dawned on me today was September 11, the...
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The 2012 Election Polls in Mali May be in Trouble
Note this recent news out of sub-Saharan Africa: "Gaddafi’s Influence in Mali’s Coup" By Thomas Fessy BBC News, West Africa correspondent 22 March 2012 last updated at 16:36 ET BBC NEWS AFRICA “It did not take long for the Libyan conflict to spill over...
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The Arab Spring didn’t buy us many friends
The Arab Spring brought about regime change. At the same time it emboldened a new generation of Salafi Islamists-- spurred on by ultraconservative imams who had been muzzled for years. They were now able to freely spew their anti-Western venom. The...
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The French Military Intervention in Mali
The removal of Libya’s Muammar Gadhafi from power, gave rise to a large presence of Islamist extremists in the region. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov told the New York Times recently that the spread of terrorism in North Africa was linked...
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The Increase of Islamist Attacks is Alarming
We are living in the most crucial time in modern history since the Cold War. Today’s enemy is not a standing army of a sovereign nation. It is a theological movement with a mission to destroy Western civilization. As the Cold War ended in the 1980s,...
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The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – Wahhabism and Oil Exports
Wahhabism in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, Horn of Africa, East Africa and Sahel region The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest country in the Arabian Peninsula, which borders on Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates,...
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The Malian Diaspora: A Product of the Arab Spring
“Over 400,000 refugees from Mali have fled to Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger and Algeria” On September 10, 2012 Yeah Samake, the mayor of Ouéléssébougou in Mali, and I visited the Mintao Refugee Camp located in the northern Burkina Faso town of Djibo....
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The Republic of Mali: Under Siege
In the 1950′s, the independence movement became endemic in sub-Saharan Africa, beginning with Ghana in 1957. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, a socialist, became Ghana’s first president. Nkrumah founded the Pan-African movement with the goal of liberating and...