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1 week ago | 
africasacountry.com | William Shoki |Sean Jacobs
In today’s multipolar world, economic sanctions have become a primary tool of American foreign policy. While they are typically framed as nonviolent targeted mechanisms for influencing “rogue” regimes, a deeper inspection suggests that sanctions operate as instruments of civilizational warfare—seeking not only to alter policy but to dismantle the cultural coherence and sovereign legitimacy of states in the Global South.
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2 months ago | 
znetwork.org | Loren Balhorn |William Shoki
Germany’s recent elections marked a turning point in the country’s political landscape. While the center-right CDU has reclaimed power, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has achieved its strongest result yet, consolidating its influence, particularly in former East Germany. The left, long in decline, has shown signs of revival, but faces an uphill battle in a political landscape increasingly defined by economic stagnation, right-wing populism, and geopolitical uncertainty.
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2 months ago | 
africasacountry.com | Loren Balhorn |William Shoki |Tom Menger |Caitlin L Chandler
WS The February 23 election produced some interesting results. The CDU has returned to power, while the far-right AfD secured its best-ever election result. How should we interpret this shift? Is it part of a broader rightward turn in European politics, or are domestic factors driving this change? LB Well, there’s definitely a European context to this shift. That much is obvious.
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Feb 3, 2025 | 
africasacountry.com | Steven Friedman |William Shoki |Christopher J. Lee
When Elon Musk marked Donald Trump’s inauguration with what seemed very much like a Nazi salute and was defended by a lobby that claimed to fight anti-Jewish racism, he and his defenders confirmed the death of two illusions. The first illusion is the belief that Zionism, the ideology that prompted the Israeli state’s genocide in Gaza, is about protecting Jews from racists.
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Jan 21, 2025 | 
africasacountry.com | Sa’eed Husaini |William Shoki
The month of August saw mass protest erupt in the West African country of Nigeria. Spurred by anger over a cost-of-living crisis and drawing inspiration from the Kenya’s youth revolt, the #EndBadGovernance protests became a rallying point for calls to take action to curb inflation and reverse the hike in prices of fuel, electricity, and food.
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Dec 23, 2024 | 
africasacountry.com | William Shoki
As we prepare to take our annual publishing break, the question on everyone’s minds is: what should we make of 2024? In this moment of global certainty, it is a human impulse to search for historical parallels. This is a fraught exercise. On the one hand, drawing analogies to the past can put into sharp view all the lessons that human civilization ought to have internalized by now. On the other, comparisons which are too quick, can obscure what is discontinuous about our conjuncture.
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Dec 18, 2024 | 
africasacountry.com | William Shoki
In July 2023, the leadership of South Africa’s largest trade union, the National Union of Metalworkers South Africa (Numsa), suspended 25 of its members, including its deputy president Ruth Ntlokotse. It also placed one of its largest regions (from the Mpumalanga province) under “administration,” barring it from participation in an upcoming national Congress, originally set for the end of July. These decisions were contested by the purged members in South Africa’s Labor Court.
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Nov 26, 2024 | 
africasacountry.com | William Decourt |Jane Duncan |William Shoki |Sean Jacobs
Recent protests against International Monetary Fund (IMF)-imposed austerity measures have rocked several African states. Kenya, a long-time partner of the United States and a key contributor to UN peacekeeping operations in Haiti, experienced violent clashes between government security forces and anti-austerity protestors over tax hikes in a controversial finance bill.
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Nov 25, 2024 | 
africasacountry.com | Jane Duncan |William Shoki |Sean Jacobs |William Decourt
Russia is slowly increasing its influence in Africa. Western actions on the continent risk alienating allies, pushing more African nations towards Moscow, and undermining Africans’ democratization and sustainable development goals. For example, protests against International Monetary Fund-imposed austerity measures have rocked several African states.
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Nov 22, 2024 | 
africasacountry.com | Zukiswa Wanner |William Shoki |Ed Pavlic
Set in a hauntingly plausible future, where Israel has marked a century of Palestinian occupation, Thaer Husien’s debut novel, Beside the Sickle Moon: A Palestinian Story, opens with a poetic, sonically disorienting line: “I hear the rhythmic pin-drop of muffled revenge from tunnels being dug 20 meters beneath my feet.” This is the world of Laeth Muhammad Awad, a convenience store owner in a town just outside Ramallah.
