(S.4 Ep.8) The Modern African State

The phrase “African Solutions to African Problems,” however difficult it may be to define, remains crucial to finding ways of improving peace and security in Africa, according to Africa experts interviewed in this final episode of Carnegie Corporation’s Peacebuilders podcast.  Posting weekly on Tuesday mornings, Peacebuilders features nine episodes from East Africa on everything from the future of the African Union to immigration to media and elections in Kenya. The interviewers are Aaron Stanley, a program assistant with Carnegie Corporation of New York’s international security program, and Scott Malcomson, an author, journalist, and former government official and NGO executive. Malcomson was a Carnegie Corporation media fellow in 2015-18, and is currently a fellow in international security at the New American Foundation and director of special projects at Strategic Insight Group. (Photo credit: Pete Souza)

The African nation-state is in a period of profound transformation, according to African experts interviewed for episode 8 of Carnegie Corporation’s Peacebuilders podcast series. In this episode: Alagaw Ababu Kifle (African Leadership Centre), Pamela Mbabazi (Institute for Peace and Security Studies in Addis Ababa), and Sagal Abshir (Somali lawyer and former government advisor). Peacebuilders features nine episodes from East Africa. The final episode, “African Solutions to African Problems,” will be broadcast on the morning of Tuesday, June 26. The interviewers are Aaron Stanley, a program assistant with Carnegie Corporation’s International Peace and Security program, and Scott Malcomson, an author, journalist, and former government official and NGO executive. Malcomson was a Carnegie Corporation media fellow (2015–18) and is currently a fellow in international security at the New America Foundation and director of special projects at Strategic Insight Group. Podcast Transcript (Photo credit: Make It Kenya Photo / Stuart Price)

Displacement has become a common feature of life in East Africa over the past decade, leading to a wide range of creative solutions, according to Caroline Njuki, senior program coordinator at the Intergovernmental Authority on Development’s regional secretariat on forced displacement and mixed migration. Njuki discusses the socioeconomic integration of displaced populations in this seventh episode of the Peacebuilders podcast series. Posting weekly on Tuesday mornings, Peacebuilders features nine episodes from East Africa on everything from the future of the African Union to immigration to media and elections in Kenya. The interviewers are Aaron Stanley, a program assistant with Carnegie Corporation of New York’s international security program, and Scott Malcomson, an author, journalist, and former government official and NGO executive. Malcomson was a Carnegie Corporation media fellow in 2015-18, and is currently a fellow in international security at the New American Foundation and director of special projects at Strategic Insight Group. Podcast Transcript (Photo credit: Robert Oxley/ DFID)

As Africa’s newest state, South Sudan was meant to be an example of what cooperation between the international community and African political actors could achieve. According to the African experts interviewed in this sixth episode of the Peacebuilders podcast series, South Sudan’s devastating descent into civil conflict has instead transformed the young country into a laboratory for competing security solutions and a humanitarian catastrophe with no clear end. Posting weekly on Tuesday mornings, Peacebuilders features nine episodes from East Africa on everything from the future of the African Union to immigration to media and elections in Kenya. The interviewers are Aaron Stanley, a program assistant with Carnegie Corporation of New York’s international security program, and Scott Malcomson, an author, journalist, and former government official and NGO executive. Malcomson was a Carnegie Corporation media fellow in 2015-18, and is currently a fellow in international security at the New American Foundation and director of special projects at Strategic Insight Group. Podcast Transcript (Photo credit: Steve Evans)

The violence that attended Kenya’s 2007 elections shocked the nation’s media as well as the larger society. According to African experts interviewed in this fifth episode of Peacebuilders, Kenyan media has become both more responsible as a result and more oriented toward reaching ethnic-group audiences rather than national ones. Whether this will lead to an increase or decrease in the importance of ethnicity for Kenyan politics remains to be seen. Posting weekly on Tuesday mornings, Peacebuilders features nine episodes from East Africa on everything from the future of the African Union to immigration to media and elections in Kenya. The interviewers are Aaron Stanley, a program assistant with Carnegie Corporation of New York’s international security program, and Scott Malcomson, an author, journalist, and former government official and NGO executive. Malcomson was a Carnegie Corporation media fellow in 2015-18, and is currently a fellow in international security at the New American Foundation and director of special projects at Strategic Insight Group. Podcast Transcript (Photo credit: ILRI/Susan MacMillan)

The African Union continues to play an important role in enforcing peace and security on the continent, but the political momentum is shifting toward “coalitions of the willing” and regional economic commissions, according to Africa experts interviewed in Nairobi and Addis Ababa for episode four of Peacebuilders, a nine-part series produced by Carnegie Corporation of New York for its podcast Diffusion. Posting weekly on Tuesday mornings, Peacebuilders features nine episodes from East Africa on everything from the future of the African Union to immigration to media and elections in Kenya. The interviewers are Aaron Stanley, a program assistant with Carnegie Corporation of New York’s international security program, and Scott Malcomson, an author, journalist, and former government official and NGO executive. Malcomson was a Carnegie Corporation media fellow in 2015-18, and is currently a fellow in international security at the New American Foundation and director of special projects at Strategic Insight Group. Podcast Transcript (Photo credit: Simon Maina/AFP/Getty Images)

The militarization of policing and counterterrorism operations in East and West Africa has chiefly multiplied the numbers of people seeking vengeance against the state, contend regional experts Nanjala Nyabola and Obi Anyadike in the third episode of Peacebuilders, a Carnegie Corporation podcast series. The militarization of regional security policy, partly in response to foreign funding agendas, is abetting insecurity and encouraging corruption from Somalia to Nigeria. Posting weekly on Tuesday mornings, Peacebuilders features nine episodes from East Africa on everything from the future of the African Union to immigration to media and elections in Kenya. The interviewers are Aaron Stanley, a program assistant with Carnegie Corporation of New York’s international security program, and Scott Malcomson, an author, journalist, and former government official and NGO executive. Malcomson was a Carnegie Corporation media fellow in 2015-18, and is currently a fellow in international security at the New American Foundation and director of special projects at Strategic Insight Group. Podcast Transcript (Photo credit: AU-UN Ist Photo/Stuart Price)

The era of large, international peacekeeping missions is over, according to experts interviewed for the second episode of Peacebuilders, a Carnegie Corporation podcast series. Focusing particularly on the hybrid United Nations/African Union mission in Somalia (AMISOM), they find that, for better and worse, the waning of interest among the major funding powers means that conflict resolution is becoming more a local and regional challenge. This podcast episode features Séverine Autesserre of Barnard College and Susan Woodward of CUNY Graduate Center, both harsh critics of international peacekeeping and what Woodward calls “the ideology of failed states.” Posting weekly on Tuesday mornings, Peacebuilders features nine episodes from East Africa on everything from the future of the African Union to immigration to media and elections in Kenya. The interviewers are Aaron Stanley, a program assistant with Carnegie Corporation of New York’s international security program, and Scott Malcomson, an author, journalist, and former government official and NGO executive. Malcomson was a Carnegie Corporation media fellow in 2015-18, and is currently a fellow in international security at the New American Foundation and director of special projects at Strategic Insight Group. Podcast Transcript (Photo Credit: AU-UN IST Photo / Stuart Price)

Ethnicity continues to shape East African politics in ways both predictable and unexpected, according to African experts featured on Peacebuilders, a new podcast series from Carnegie Corporation of New York. “The question of ethnicity,” George Gathigi, lecturer at the University of Nairobi, says, “always features in every conversation.” What role does ethnicity play in post-conflict countries in East Africa? Hosts Aaron Stanley and Scott Malcomson speak with experts from the region in this first episode of the Peacebuilders series. Posting weekly on Tuesday mornings, Peacebuilders features nine episodes from East Africa on everything from the future of the African Union to immigration to media and elections in Kenya. The interviewers are Aaron Stanley, a program assistant with Carnegie Corporation of New York’s international security program, and Scott Malcomson, an author, journalist, and former government official and NGO executive. Malcomson was a Carnegie Corporation media fellow in 2015-18, and is currently a fellow in international security at the New American Foundation and director of special projects at Strategic Insight Group. (Podcast Transcript)

In a modern economy, how can the U.S. adapt its immigration policies to the benefit of the country? Jeremy Robbins of New American Economy discusses the need for comprehensive immigration reform, the future of the DACA program and more.