Jendayi Frazer, Juergen Voegele, and Gary Weir flesh out the drivers of scarcity and security challenges related to natural resources in Africa, focusing on natural resource management. This meeting is part of the Global Resources, the U.S. Economy, and National Security symposium, sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations and Conservation International.

Jendayi Frazer, Juergen Voegele, and Gary Weir flesh out the drivers of scarcity and security challenges related to natural resources in Africa, focusing on natural resource management. This meeting is part of the Global Resources, the U.S. Economy, and National Security symposium, sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations and Conservation International.

The United States restored official relations with Somalia in January 2013 after years of civil unrest there, reflecting an increasingly stable Somali political environment. Better relations with Somalia, however, have little to do with the decrease in piracy, and the drop in offshore piracy cannot be attributed to Somali government efforts.

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"Ansaru's new salience represents another, serious challenge to Nigeria's stability," writes John Campbell.

Writer Maaza Mengiste and executive producer Tom Yellin discuss their new film, Girl Rising.

Writer Maaza Mengiste and executive producer Tom Yellin discuss their new film, Girl Rising.

Jendayi Frazer, former assistant secretary of state for African affairs and current CFR adjunct senior fellow, and Joel D. Barkan, Center for Strategic and International Studies Africa scholar, discuss the elections in Kenya and how they could affect U.S. security interests.

Will Kenya's elections produce a representative government or deepen its democratic decline? CFR's Joshua Kurlantzick offers a prescription for reversing the retreat of emerging states like Kenya.

The exploitation of Congo's vast resources by competing elites and militaries for personal enrichment promotes insecurity and stymies development. Only very strong Western and African public outcry and a change in China's nonintervention approach might open the possibilities for change.

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Secretary John Kerry and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon gave these remarks before their meeting on February 14, 2013. They outlined the main issues they would discuss: North Korea's nuclear test and Six Party Talks, negotiations with Iran, the crisis in Syria, and France's intervention in Mali.

Moving away from fossil fuels could be devastating for some of the world's poorest countries, says Michael A. Levi.

France says it will withdraw from Mali once an African peacekeeping force is in place. To keep Islamists at bay, the United States is considering increasing its military presence in the region. A better approach is to focus on fixing the governance issues that fuel radicalism to begin with, says John Campbell.

Some experts believe al-Shabab is at its weakest point in years following an African-led counterinsurgency campaign, but others warn of the group's resiliency in an unstable Somalia.

Jihadists were already finding it hard to operate in North Africa before the Arab Spring of 2011. Since then their problems have become almost insurmountable: they thrive only in countries where Islamists are in prison, not where they are in the ascendant or contesting elections. As for Europe, the last attacks instigated by al-Qaida date back to Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005. Jihadism looks less like a rising phenomenon in the north of Mali than a force in retreat. The French intervention may well give them purpose and greater coherence.

As French forces intervene in Mali to curtail rebel forces in the country's northern region, CFR's John Campbell highlights three things to know about Mali and the escalating conflict.

Secretary of Defense Panetta held this press conference previewing his final international trip as secretary, on January 14, 2013. His travel will include Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Great Britain.

In the run-up to Kenya's March 2013 elections, the United States can take measures to prevent a repeat of the electoral violence that broke out across the country in 2007.

Sebastian Mallaby argues the lesson from sub-Saharan Africa's economic turnaround is that policies do matter.

The radical Islamist group Boko Haram has contributed to widespread and deadly violence in Nigeria, but the government sercurity services are also at fault, write CFR's John Campbell and Asch Harwood.

Rwandan-backed rebels recently withdrew from the eastern Congolese city of Goma, but a comprehensive peace deal with the government remains elusive, says expert Jason Stearns.