21st Century
Warfare – Snake style
Puffins that have their ears to the ground (or is it ears to the clouds?) will no doubt be aware of the excellent series of lectures by David Betz which very convincingly argues that we [more…]
Civil War
21st Century
Building on Sand? The Perils of Peacemaking in Sudan
After 16 months of civil war, Sudan increasingly resembles a ‘failed state’, with displacement and man-made famine driving one of the ‘worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory’. Following early setbacks, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) [more…]
Capitalism
Postcard From Antebellum Birmingham
“You know there isn’t going to be any war,” said Scarlett, bored. “It’s all just talk. Why, Ashley Wilkes and his father told Pa just last week that our commissioners in Washington would come to–to–an–amicable [more…]
20th Century
Report From Kenya, 1955 – Part Five
In 1955, at the height of the Mau Mau Rebellion, my uncle John Alldridge produced a series of reports from Kenya for the Birmingham Mail and the Manchester Evening News – Jerry F Kamiti I [more…]
America
The American-Somalian Base Deal Arguably Has Ulterior Motives
The US decided to expand its military influence in Somalia on the pretext of anti-terrorist base-building in order to indirectly pressure Ethiopia after last month’s Memorandum of Understanding with Somaliland in a “plausibly deniable” way. [more…]
20th Century
African Regime Gone Bad: The Result
Rwanda’s “story” had the international community so thoroughly by the emotional and intellectual throat, it could not now, wrest free. Some elements of the stranglehold were self-serving. Rwanda’s most prize 21st-century export was not coffee [more…]
20th Century
African Regime Gone Bad, Part Eleven
Having humiliated the Ugandan Army (UPDF), the RPF and the RCD in December crushed the remnants of the Congolese army and its Zimbabwean allies in Pweto, southeastern Congo. On 16th January 2001, Kabila was sitting [more…]
20th Century
Africa Regime Gone Bad, Pilato Climbs the Ladder
In March 1997, in his usual dubious and manipulative way, Kagame “assumed” the chairmanship of the RPF (the ruling party) from Colonel Alexis Kanyarengwe. After protesting army massacres of Hutus in his home province of [more…]
20th Century
African Regime Gone Bad, Zaire Invasion
If “keep us safe” was the RPF’s public driving mantra, it was easier said than done. Having taken a generation for Uganda refugee camps to produce a rebel force capable of threatening Rwanda’s national security, [more…]