by Robert Baker Rajat Neogy declared himself referee and demanded a formal exchange of insults contest between Paul Theroux and me. It was the fag end of a very Scotch evening in Rajat’s cluttered, dusty living room up in the … Continued

by Mark Wentling What is an embassy? What is an ambassador? ‘Embassy’ and ‘Ambassador’ were practically new words for me in 1967 when I encountered them firsthand in Tegucigalpa. Way back then, I and other members of 8th group new … Continued

by Michael Cotter The summer of 1984, my wife Joanne and I headed off for assignments—our first as a tandem couple—to Kinshasa, capital of what was then Zaire and is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. My parents, inveterate … Continued

Reviewed by Anthony Quainton Herman J Cohen, The Mind of the African Strongman: Conversations with Dictators, Statesmen, and Father Figures, New Academia Publishing/Vellum, 2015, ISBN-13: 978-098643530, 288 pp. $34.00 (Hardcover), $24.00 (Paperback) In the course of a forty-year career working … Continued

 Observations on aid after over four decades of practicing development in Africa by Mark Wentling Abstract All agree that strong institutions are necessary for the achievement of lasting progress. It is widely recognized that strong institutions are essential for nation-building … Continued

Dear Editor, I have just learned that our former colleague Edmund DeJarnette has died. Here is the obituary which appeared last month in the Richmond Times-Dispatch: http://www.richmond.com/obituaries/article_53c74576-c09f-523b-a22c-7f467e4a1cd4.html. Ed DeJarnette was one of the most accomplished Africanists in the Foreign Service, … Continued

Review by Ambassador (ret.) Herman J. Cohen Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria, and the Struggle for Southern Africa by Piero Gleijeses University of North Carolina Press, 2013, ISBN-13 978-1469609683, 672 pp., Hardcover $40.00, Amazon hardcover $32.00, Kindle $18.19. The … Continued

by Benjamin L. Landis It is apparent without further explanation that the world of Islam from the shores of the Atlantic to the extremities of the Indian Ocean is today in tumult. The causes for these chaotic conditions are rooted … Continued

by Larry LesserJust a few days after I arrived in Rwanda, my secretary Melanie Webb (not her real name) asked to meet with me to discuss a very urgent personal problem — a life-or-death issue involving her boyfriend. I was … Continued

Chapter Sixteen: Cacao cum Cocoa from Africa’s Heart — The Journey Ends in Kansas coming in January 2015 by Mark Wentling “He’s coming!” These words were shouted out loudly by the first sentinel posted at the junction of the village … Continued

by Mark Wentling  “Cram-cram,” replied Hadjara, when I asked her what she was eating. She and about thirty other women and a dozen children dressed in flimsy black rags were camped by the last water well in a vast barren … Continued

by Bob BakerMy last years in Africa, 1968-1969, were in Mali, mostly sahel or desert except around the Niger and Senegal rivers. It was called “a hardship post” because of the isolation, heat, diseases, and the local Marxist anti-American dictatorship. … Continued

By Thomas Joscelyn, Senior Fellow, Foundation for the Defense of Democracy http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/political-economic-and-security-situation-in-africa/ Reviewed by Renate Z. Coleshill, Foreign Service Officer, retired Thomas Joscelyn testified before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian … Continued

by Curtis F. Jones Imperialism comes in two types—hegemonic and colonial. Type I (hegemonic) confines itself to controlling the policies of its foreign subjects, who are regarded as just another natural resource—the labor to operate the government and work the … Continued

by Brenda Brown Schoonover

Is the Maghreb the Black Swan of US diplomacy?
by Abdelilah Bouasria & Mohamed Abdouh Kabir

Review by Norvell B. DeAtkine

by Sam Holliday

Review by David Beechey
Small Wars, Faraway Places: The Genesis of the Modern World 1945 – 1965 by Michael Burleigh, New York & London: Macmillan, 2013, ISBN 13: 978-0230752320, 592 pp.

Review by Adam Clayton Powell III

China and Africa: A Century of Engagement by David H. Shinn and Joshua Eisenman, University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia PA 19104, ISBN 978-0-8122-4419-9, 523 pp.