Comment archive

Tuesday, 5 Sept 2023
Seeking New Leadership? Military Coups in Africa and Their Implications

In a 2021 op-ed, we predicted that military coups and political unrest in West African countries like Guinea, Mali, and Burkina Faso signaled a recurring pattern of semi-democratic military rule. Recent military takeovers in Niger on July 26 and Gabon on August 30 have now affirmed this prediction. This raises ...

Thursday, 14 Oct 2021
Misconception of Power and the Case of Guinea’s President Alpha Condé

On September 5th, President Alpha Condé was captured by the Guinean elite special force commander Col. Mamady Doumbouyah and his team. Col. Doumbouyah, the head of CNRD (National Committee of Reconciliation and Development) immediately dissolved the government, annulled the constitution, urged the former officials to report on the following day for ...

Thursday, 7 Oct 2021
Military Coups d'État and Guinea’s Rocky Road to Political Stability

While the fate of Guinea’s former President Alpha Condé remains unclear following a military coup on September 5, the ongoing political turmoil is most likely a beginning of a repetitive cycle of a semi-democratic military governance observed across West Africa. Security Defection: Domestic vs. International Community Reactions Guinea is, yet ...

Wednesday, 10 Mar 2021
An Already Failing Peace Process Betrayed in Myanmar

The February 1st military coup in Myanmar and the massive demonstrations that followed have deservedly gained the world’s attention. The people of Myanmar have had their taste of democracy, however fragile it was, and now refuse to let go of it. But what about peace in Myanmar? Myanmar’s Peace Process ...

Friday, 5 Feb 2021
Facebook's Power in Myanmar

Facebook is Myanmar’s dominant media platform. Now the country is again a dictatorship. In 2018, Facebook banned commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing for his role in the expulsion of the Rohingya. Now, as the country’s new dictator, he temporarily shuts down Facebook. Myanmar’s many conflicts have given Facebook director Mark Zuckerberg ...

Friday, 4 Sept 2020
Can Mali’s democracy wait?

Mali cannot afford another rushed and destabilizing election process. Sustaining and strengthening international cooperation should be the first priority, even if this implies a temporary military regime. No surprise, but very inconvenient Mali’s recent coup – the third in three decades – came as no surprise. An escalating civil war, ...