BY SHYAKA ANASTASE IN SEARCH FOR JUSTICE, SOCIAL COHESI ON AND PEACE Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda are among the African countries which have been most affected by violent conflicts in the last twenty years. Elements that characterize the bloodshed in the Great Lakes region include the politicization of ethnic identity, [...]
BY TERRENCE LYONS Protracted civil wars are nearly always embedded within regional and global systems of insecurity where conflict in one area feeds and, in turn, is fed by tensions and confrontation in another. Analysts have pointed out the regional dimensions of conflicts in the Middle East, Balkans, Central and West Africa, and in other [...]
BY JOHN N. PADEN Religious affiliation is one of many identities that may be mobilized for political purposes. Succession to leadership in democratic systems is always a political process, and symbol management is an integral part of this process. In pluralistic societies, the ability to balance the ticket, or to convince a multi-ethnic constituency that [...]
BY PAULINE E. GINSBERG In systematic study of the effects of globalization on adolescents outside Western Europe and North America, teens are depicted as passive recipients of changes in worldwide socio-political and economic events driven by the behavior of the great economic, technological, and political powerhouses of the United States, the European Community, and technologically advanced [...]
BY TERRENCE LYONS Globalization has shaped how processes of migration, exile, and the formation of diaspora and other transnational networks operate. Globalization has decreased communication and travel costs, thereby making it easier for migrants to form diaspora networks that link geographically distant populations to social, political, and economic dynamics in the homeland. Those forced across [...]
BY CARLOS E. SLUZKI No less than 20 million of people, escaping wars, civil wars, persecution, ethnic cleansing and the like, are currently living as refugees beyond the borders of their own countries, and a still larger number are living as displaced persons within the boundaries of their country. Their protection is the core mission [...]
BY LINDSAY IRVINE When Yetounde was but seven days old, Mandibou villagers sacrificed her to the fears and superstitions of the past; after only seven days of life, she became a victim of ritualized female circumcision. Had it not been for the intervention of a French missionary, Father Benoit, the dangerous procedure would have claimed [...]
BY HAZEL M. MCFERSON The history of interaction in the United States between Asians and African-Americans is far more nuanced than either the view that most interaction has been positive, or the more common, opposing view that what interaction has taken place has been uniformly negative. Certainly, in contemporary times there is a widespread impression, [...]
BY MARCEL KITISSOU China has forged extensive political, economic and military ties with most of the fifty-four African countries, in part to secure a stable oil supply. However, the implications of “petro politics” for the stability of the African countries concerned may not always be positive. China’s trade with the continent has tripled since 2000, [...]
BY BENEDICT CARTON In the twilight of apartheid, militant Zulu nationalism threatened a momentous democratic transition in South Africa. Weeks before the milestone April 1994 election, Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini, backed by M.G. Buthelezi’s Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), urged the “warrior Zulu nation” to go it alone and follow the inspiration of Shaka Zulu, a [...]