AIDS, the once deadly disease with devastating externalities which many in both the lay and medical communities thought was the wrath of God, has now been reduced to the status of chronic illness. It is no longer a death sentence. Those who have access to the new treatment can expect to live “normal” lives, and raise families with minimal risk of transmitting the virus to others. This development has incalculable benefits to those already infected, those that are HIV-free, and to society at large. It also means that developing economies once burdened by the disease may now look forward to…
Author: CASADE
Special Report. African reactions to the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington were overwhelmingly supportive of the United States. Dozens of African leaders offered support to combat terrorism. South African President Thabo Mbeki said that “The South African government unreservedly denounces these senseless and horrific terrorist attacks and joins the world in denouncing these dastardly acts.” The leader of Sudan’s National Islamic Front government, President Omar el-Bashir, who provided a safe haven to Osama bin Laden between 1991 and 1996, condemned the terrorist attacks and expressed his government’s readiness…
Peter Chalk. Three countries—Israel, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom (U.K.)—have enacted social and economic development policies to inhibit a resurgence of terrorism within their jurisdictions. The efforts of these countries demonstrate the potential benefits and short- comings of using social and economic development as a counterterrorism tool. In each case, social and economic development initiatives were considered integral parts of wider peace processes: In Israel, the Paris Protocol of Economic Relations, which provided Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (WBGS) with various economic and trade incentives, accompanied the 1993 Oslo Accords for establishing the Palestinian Authority…
No sooner was the terrorist assault that killed at least 20 people in Mali’s capital city, Bamako, contained did two groups affiliated with al-Qaeda claim responsibility. On that fateful Friday morning in November, the Raddison Hotel where the attack took place was being used for the Mali “peace Process” conference that featured a number of foreign diplomats; some of them, along with other guests at the hotel were held hostages. Malian troops swept through the hotel room by room, floor by floor, freeing hostages and pursuing the gunmen. They found the floors littered with the bodies of Malians and foreign…
DAN G. COX. There is a flourishing and growing debate among political scientists regarding the links between democracy/democratization and terrorism. Terrorism, Instability, and Democracy in Asia and Africa takes a regional approach to the issue, focusing on two areas sorely underrepresented in the literature but which grow ever more topical. Beginning with definitions and a literature review, the authors present and interpret statistical analysis and case studies of nations in the Horn of Africa; sub-Saharan Africa; and Central, East, South, and Southeast Asia. This is a timely book that will fill a gaping hole in terrorism literature, just as…
By John Davies. Abject poverty and official corruption make parts of Africa a very attractive destination for terrorist organizations. Opportunities have developed during the pre- and post-9/11 periods in Africa for the recruitment of terrorists, attainment of bases of operations and sources of funding for Al Qaeda or its affiliated terror groups. This comprehensive volume provides an extensive examination of major terrorist events in Africa. It highlights internal and external indices to illustrate why Africa is so ripe for terrorism, ostensibly in terms of recruitment as well as attainment and sources of funding due to the continent’s continuing poverty and…
The mid-air explosion of Russian flight 9268 over the Sinai Peninsula this month brings once again to the fore the reactive nature of existing airport security schemes. It always seems to be the case that corrective security measures are only implemented after a deadly terrorist attack on an airliner has been successful. After the US 9/11 experience, airports around the world took steps to properly screen passengers and their belongings before boarding a plane; the vigor and stringency by which this measure was implemented gave passengers, albeit not without complaints, a qualified sense of safety in the air. But…
Boko Haram has killed and maimed more innocent civilians in the past year than ISIS and Al Shabaab combined. In 2014 alone it killed 6,644 people, surpassing ISIS which killed 6,073, thus making it the deadliest terrorist group of last year according to a report by Global Terrorism Index. Boko Haram’s murderous attacks make no apologies for its nature as a threat that requires serious attention; and so far it has managed to get the attention of the international community as a pitiful bloodthirsty cabal. But the approach taken in the past and in recent months by the governments of…
By Alex Perry. Reviewed by Peter Collins. The Search for Boko Haram is compelling and unsentimental in its deconstruction of a story that appears inevitable and shocking. In a world where old orders are being disrupted by technology and where personal and political boundaries are being hacked by violent extremism, Alex Perry’s account is an example of the kind of patient, unsentimental, triangulated reporting that is required to make sense of the new world disorder. Perry offers us more than a fleeting glimpse of how we can still transcend terror in the age of entropy. Journalist Alex Perry explores the…
President Buhari of Nigeria promised the electorates that his administration would make Boko Haram an ugly nightmare of the past within months in office if elected. The outlandishness of this promise was almost as distasteful as the group he promised to extinguish. His promises, however, were not out of the ordinary, for politicians, occasioned by natural inclination, tend to make promises they know they can not keep. But for many Nigerians who voted for him on the basis of his presumed strength on national security, the disappointment is almost palpable given the discomforting reality that the terrorist sect is still…