17/12/2021
All wars end. It is just a question of how long it takes and how many people die in the process. Ethiopia is turning into Africa’s forgotten war, partly because so little reliable information is available, with the authorities reluctant to allow independent reporting and propaganda rife on all sides, partly because efforts to …
On 14 September 2021, Africa Confidential, International Crisis Group and the Royal African Society co-hosted a high-level conference on Climate, Conflict and Demography in Africa. An audience of over 1,000 people from the UK, North America, Europe and Africa ...
20/10/2021
In Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove, a hapless British RAF officer (played by Peter Sellers) tries to prevent a maverick US general precipitating nuclear Armageddon. Spoiler alert: he fails. So did Boris Johnson in trying persuade President Biden to delay hi...
01/9/2021
Introduction This year is the 120th Anniversary of the Royal African Society. This is worth celebrating, but also examining. Relations between Africa and Britain have changed dramatically in that time, as has the Society itself. In some ways, they reflect each...
14/6/2021
Image: Malian troops in the north of the country. Credit: Fred Marie. The nature of terrorism in Africa has been both much studied and much misunderstood. Both African and Western governments are still making fundamental mistakes in their efforts to t...
02/6/2021
Today, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) published the Report of the Special Committee to Review Historical Inequalities in Commemoration (available here). A century after the First World War, the Commission has acknowledged that its mission to ens...
22/4/2021
Last week the British Government published Global Britain in a competitive age, its Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy. The aim is to demonstrate that, with Brexit achieved, Britain intends to play a constructive and influen...
25/3/2021
On the surface, Addis Ababa appears much as it always has. The streets are full of people, some wearing masks, most not; the roads are full of cars; businesses are open and busy; construction continues, at least on some sites. South of Addis, across muc...
16/3/2021
This June, the British Prime Minister will welcome G7 leaders to a summit in Cornwall. He has announced he will also invite the leaders of India, South Korea and Australia for a meeting of major democracies, to be called the D10. He should now make it a “...
01/3/2021