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Beyond Humanitarianism

What You Need to Know About Africa and Why It Matters

Editors: Princeton N. Lyman and Patricia Lee Dorff, Editorial Director

Beyond Humanitarianism - beyond-humanitarianism

Publisher Council on Foreign Relations Press

Release Date September 2007

256 pages
ISBN 978-0-87609-371-9

$19.95

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Contents

Foreword
RICHARD N. HAASS

Introduction LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION
PRINCETON N. LYMAN

Map

I—Under The Radar

U.S. Interest in Democracy and Human Rights Promotion
EXCERPTED FROM AN INDEPENDENT TASK FORCE REPORT

China Ups the Ante in Africa
PRINCETON N. LYMAN

Toward an Angola Strategy: Prioritizing U.S.- Angola Relations
AN INDEPENDENT COMMISSION REPORT FROM THE CENTER
FOR PREVENTIVE ACTION

Nigeria: Elections and Continuing Challenges
ROBERT I. ROTBERG

South Africa in Retrospect
PRINCETON N. LYMAN

Africa's Restless Youth
MICHELLE D. GAVIN

II—Trouble Spots

Zimbabwe: The Limits of Influence
PRINCETON N. LYMAN

Darfur and Beyond: What Is Needed to Prevent Mass Atrocities
LEE FEINSTEIN

Somalia's Terrorist Infestation
EBEN KAPLAN

Avoiding Conflict in the Horn of Africa: U.S. Policy Toward Ethiopia and Eritrea
TERRENCE LYONS

Blowing the Horn
JOHN PRENDERGAST AND COLIN THOMAS-JENSEN

III—Next Steps: Ideas for the Present and Future of Africa

How to Rebuild Africa
STEPHEN ELLIS

Strengthening African Leadership
ROBERT I. ROTBERG

The Challenge of Global Health LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION
LAURIE GARRETT

IV—Our Role: What the United States Can Do

It was the Year for Africa, But We Missed the Point
EXCERPTED FROM AN INDEPENDENT TASK FORCE REPORT

Endnotes

Additional Resources

About the Contributors

Acknowledgments

Index

Overview

Africa is moving center stage in world politics, but not just for humanitarian reasons.

Currently, 15 percent of U.S. oil imports come from Africa—as much as from the Middle East—and the continent is poised to double its output over the coming decade. It has become the focus of attention from countries like China, which now imports more oil from Angola than from Saudi Arabia. In addition, Africa is rising in importance in trade, international security, democracy promotion, and efforts to tackle worldwide concerns about global health and poverty.

The Council on Foreign Relations and Foreign Affairs present Beyond Humanitarianism, a compilation of recent work on Africa. This citizen's guide to the complex issues and conflicts on the continent clarifies what's at stake in Africa's future. It addresses underlying trends—such as the growth of democracy, the rising activity of China, and the political and economic prospects for the countries of Africa, as well as regional conflicts and terrorist threats there—and provides an absorbing look at Africa's emergence as a strategic player.

Highlighted in Publishers Weekly as a noteworthy Fall 2007 Trade Paperback on Contemporary Affairs.


Princeton N. Lyman, the Council's adjunct senior fellow for Africa policy studies, provides an overview of the major issues and section essays that briefly highlight the context for understanding each chapter. It concludes with recommendations drawn from the Council's Independent Task Force report on Africa. Based on the success of that report, which the State Department said significantly "raised the profile of Africa among policymakers," this book draws on a variety of Council content: Foreign Affairs articles, Independent Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, the Council's website—CFR.org—as well as other pieces by Council senior fellows.

"One of the most important compilations of works on today's Africa."
—Charlayne Hunter-Gault

Beyond Humanitarianism is also available in the following formats:

A Caravan Project Book. The Caravan Project, supported by the MacArthur Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Century Foundation, is an innovative partnership of publishers, booksellers, and libraries that helps to bring serious nonfiction, in traditional as well as a variety of digital formats, to the eyes and ears of discerning readers. Beyond Humanitarianism, like all Caravan books, will be available in a traditional print edition along with eBook and audiobook versions, both available for download in their entirety and by individual chapter.

More About This Publication

Highlighted in Publishers Weekly as a noteworthy Fall 2007 Trade Paperback on Contemporary Affairs.

Read the Washington Post article.

Read the Library Journal review.

"Africa is on the agenda for foreign policymakers dealing with trade, terrorism, new democracies, failing states, global health, and, not least, geopolitics. Yet deep knowledge about Africa outside the development and humanitarian communities is sparse. Beyond Humanitarianism is the perfect antidote—a remarkable and crisply organized collection of essays on the full range of challenges that confront Africa and the world. Highly recommended!"
—Anne-Marie Slaughter, dean, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University

"As this volume makes apparent, the United States has compelling security, economic, and political interests throughout Africa; the challenge now is pursuing these interests with sustained, strategic support that bolsters African-led initiatives to promote governance, stability, equality, and prosperity across the continent."
—Russell D. Feingold, U.S. Senator

"Beyond Humanitarianism is one of the most important compilations of works on today's Africa—a continent whose great strides towards positively reinventing itself are largely unknown in the West. It is a timely work that captures the continent's ongoing struggles, but also its ever-increasing victories, and it lays out plausible solutions that could make a huge difference in Africa's efforts to join the Family of Nations as a fully functioning member. I hope it gets the widest possible readership, particularly in America, where all too often the continent is seen solely through the prism of the four ds—death, disease, disaster, and despair. A book like this is needed to help Americans understand why a healthy Africa matters and to foster the kind of international cooperation needed to help change negative perceptions, as well as the realities that feed them—for all our sakes."
—Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Johannesburg Bureau Chief for CNN

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