The best news from Ivory Coast in recent weeks is that there hasn't been much news. After French soldiers destroyed the pitiful Ivorian Air Force -- two aged jets and a few helicopters -- in a revenge rampage last month, it seemed the country was tipping into the type of civil war that Africa has seen too often: a nation tearing itself apart while a "peacekeeping" army of its former colonial masters waits benignly in the wings.
That depressing post-colonial cliche should not be applied to Ivory Coast -- despite the efforts of the lazier sections of the media.
When fighting broke out in the north of the country, against those opposed to President Laurent Gbagbo's government, the UK news headlines were unequivocal. "Ivory Coast descends into chaos" (the London Times) and "Paratroopers and tanks move in to quell Ivory Coast unrest" (Daily Telegraph) followed the bombings that killed nine French soldiers in early November.
As tensions rose and the French carried out "revenge" attacks, the bellicose coverage continued.
"We fled machete mobs," blared the London Sunday Times on Nov. 14 summoning up the dark heart of Africa for readers safely home in Britain.
So far, so bad. But of course the story didn't stop there. As France's peacekeeping turned sour, the Africa Union stepped in to reinvigorate the country's power-sharing and peace process. South Africa's president Thabo Mbeki travelled north on behalf of the union earlier this month, and was met by cheering crowds.
"We want to clear the way for a better life for everyone in Ivory Coast," Mbeki said, reported by the Associated Press. Here was a good news story, of African countries cooperating to solve the problems in their own backyard. After all the tales of looting, rape and murder, was this optimistic note sounded in the British press? Not a word.
When it comes to those countries of site for "peace breaks out" news is calorie-free. Even the announcement this month, that things had calmed down enough to allow France to withdraw 1,000 troops, did not make it into the papers.
Ivory Coast is a perfect example of the misrepresentation of Africa in the West's eyes. Other than the Ivorian footballers drafted into European teams, the country hardly rates a mention. Yet far from being an economic basketcase, Ivory Coast was one of the success stories of modern sub-Saharan Africa. Not only is it the world's major producer of cocoa, but besides South Africa it can boast the best infrastructure and most sophisticated economy on the continent.
Ivory Coast's post-independence growth followed a period of stability under its first president, the dictator Felix Houphouet-Boigny, since the country ceased to be a colony in 1960. But that stability has come under threat, as the grip of strong men such as Houphouet-Boigny and his successor Henri Bedie weakened.
Both men favored the predominantly Francophone and wealthy Christian south of the country, and were happy to allow France to retain its colonial prerogatives, dressed up as partnership, into the modern era.
That cosy pattern was disrupted in 1999, as the ham-fisted Bedie provoked deep unpopularity and was later deposed by the Ivorian army.
The coup appeared to herald a greater degree of democracy, especially in voting rights for the country's huge immigrant population and the status of their offspring.
The nationality issue had come to a head over the status of Alassane Ouattara, the talented technocrat who was barred from running in the 1995 presidential election by Bedie, on the grounds that he was a foreigner -- which Ouattara hotly disputes.
Stripped of his Ivorian citizenship in 1999, Ouattara is popular in the north of the country. That area has been in the hands of the New Forces rebels since 2002. It is a sign of the optimism following Mbeki's intervention that the painful issue of "Ivorianess" -- the xenophobic policy of populist nationalism -- may be resolved. But Gbagbo remains the key to any peace deal. So far he has proved adept at out-maneuvering the French.
Ironically, the French generally turned a blind eye to "Ivorianess" when it was deployed against political rivals such as Ouattara. But when Gbagbo's paramilitary supporters -- the appropriately named Young Patriots -- began targeting foreign French citizens, France became more violent. The result was French soldiers in Abidjan firing into an unarmed group of protesters early in November, killing some 50 to 60 civilians.
France initially denied the shootings, but eventually put the death toll at 20. In an echo of the 1958 Sakiet crisis -- when French bombers attacked a village in Tunisia said to be harboring Algerian guerrillas -- there are calls for international investigations into France's bloody reprisals. No wonder some have called Ivory Coast "France's little Iraq."
Meanwhile, the Africa Union has restarted the peace process, as the dregs of France's influence in Africa ebbs away. If all this good news keeps up, we may hear little more from Ivory Coast for years.
In their recent op-ed “Trump Should Rein In Taiwan” in Foreign Policy magazine, Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim argued that the US should pressure President William Lai (賴清德) to “tone it down” to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait — as if Taiwan’s words are more of a threat to peace than Beijing’s actions. It is an old argument dressed up in new concern: that Washington must rein in Taipei to avoid war. However, this narrative gets it backward. Taiwan is not the problem; China is. Calls for a so-called “grand bargain” with Beijing — where the US pressures Taiwan into concessions
The term “assassin’s mace” originates from Chinese folklore, describing a concealed weapon used by a weaker hero to defeat a stronger adversary with an unexpected strike. In more general military parlance, the concept refers to an asymmetric capability that targets a critical vulnerability of an adversary. China has found its modern equivalent of the assassin’s mace with its high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapons, which are nuclear warheads detonated at a high altitude, emitting intense electromagnetic radiation capable of disabling and destroying electronics. An assassin’s mace weapon possesses two essential characteristics: strategic surprise and the ability to neutralize a core dependency.
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
During the “426 rally” organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party under the slogan “fight green communism, resist dictatorship,” leaders from the two opposition parties framed it as a battle against an allegedly authoritarian administration led by President William Lai (賴清德). While criticism of the government can be a healthy expression of a vibrant, pluralistic society, and protests are quite common in Taiwan, the discourse of the 426 rally nonetheless betrayed troubling signs of collective amnesia. Specifically, the KMT, which imposed 38 years of martial law in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, has never fully faced its
RSS