Turkey’s Rise as a Regional Power and its Role in the European Neighbourhood (ARI)
Turkey has a growing strategic role in its overlapping neighbourhood with the EU.
Challenges and opportunities in the neighbourhood
The Beginnings of Accountability?: South Africa’s Fourth Election and its Implications for Governance (ARI)
South Africa has just experienced its most competitive election yet. The governing African National Congress was forced to compete for votes for the first time and lost some ground as a result. This ARI examines the implications for government accountability, effective governance and competitive politics.
Algeria: The Subterranean Logics of a Non-election (ARI)
Algeria has just held what it calls a presidential election. It has done so at intervals since 1995 and these have regularly been a cause for dissatisfaction at home and abroad. But what exactly are these events that so consistently fail to measure up to widespread expectations? This ARI explains that they are not really elections at all and that the expectations entertained in respect of them are entirely misplaced.
The Gaza War: Antecedents and Consequences (ARI)
When Israel launched the Gaza war on 27 December 2008, it chose an opportune moment. Nonetheless, much like the Lebanon war of 2006, Israel’s strategic gains in ‘Operation Cast Lead’ have dissipated day by day.
Angola’s Current Economic Prospects: Oil Curse or Blessing? (ARI)
The author reviews the economic boom that Angola is currently experiencing in a post-election context, despite the global economic downturn. While Angola’s impressive growth rates were initially a result of high oil prices, increasingly the economy is driven by the non-oil sector, primarily through construction and heavy public spending under the auspices of the national reconstruction programme.
Africa’s Bane: Tax Havens, Capital Flight and the Corruption Interface
This paper considers how tax havens facilitate capital flight and tax evasion, and how these linked activities undermine developmental processes. This is followed by an examination of the scale of capital flight and tax evasion in Africa, and the potential for the recently proposed offshore financial centre in Accra, Ghana, to exacerbate these problems in the West African region.
China Returns to Africa: Anatomy of an Expansive Engagement
This paper presents a scoping analysis of the main contours of relations, offering an anatomy of key dimensions of an expansive Chinese engagement in the continent that remains dynamic.
Plus ça Change, Plus c’est la Même Chose: The Political Economy of Rent-driven Development in Mauritania (ARI)
After four decades of rent-driven development that has systematically killed off competition in the main sectors of the economy, Mauritania remains inherently prone to authoritarian intervention when powerful interests are threatened.
Elections, Mediation and Deadlock in Zimbabwe? (ARI)
The mixture of hope and despair that followed the March 2008 elections in Zimbabwe and the ensuing violence gave way to the new possibilities offered by the political agreement signed by Zanu PF, the MDC (Tsvangirai) and the MDC (Mutambara) on 11 September 2008.
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