This module features teaching notes by Independent Consultant for International Development and Foreign Policy Anthony W. Gambino, author of Congo: Securing Peace, Sustaining Progress, along with other resources to supplement the text. This Council Special Report addresses the country's social, economic, and security challenges and recommends two priorities for U.S. policy: combating insecurity in the east and promoting sustainable development.
Lawlessness in eastern Congo has reached a critical juncture. Analysts fear the crisis in the enormous country, which borders nine others, could spread across the region.
The volatile mixture of government troops, rebels, and lawlessness in eastern Congo’s North Kivu province threatens to draw in neighboring states and destabilize the region.
With the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo set to expire this month, security sector reform is in shambles and the situation in the east remains volatile.
The International Criminal Court looks set to begin its first-ever trial involving a case of child soldiers in the Congo, while in neighboring Uganda, calls for the Court to drop its indictments have called its authority into question.
Congo's Sunday votes in parliamentary and second-round presidential elections went off relatively well, though the fault line between the country’s vast west and its mineral-rich east could complicate any result.
Amid fears about security, the Democratic Republic of the Congo's first election in four decades proceeded smoothly with strong voter turnout. While it seems to have been a success, votes won't be tallied for a few weeks, and some are concerned that the Congolese people may not accept the election's results.
Asked by Lauren Harrison,
from Harvard Kennedy School Author: John Campbell
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.
Speakers: Anthony W. Gambino and Roger A. Meece Presider: Philip Gourevitch
Experts examine the stability, security, risks, and quality of governance of the Democratic Republic of Congo since the 2006 elections, as well as the need for continued international engagement.
Listen to Anthony W. Gambino, an independent consultant for international development and foreign policy, discuss securing peace in the Congo with students as part of CFR's Academic Conference Call series.
On July 30, the Democratic Republic of the Congo will hold its first multiparty presidential and parliamentary elections in four decades. Many hope this will be the country’s first fully democratic election, but a host of challenges—including infrastructure, security, and communication—have experts hoping the Congolese people will merely accept the election’s results.
This report lays out a thoughtful agenda for U.S. policy toward the Democratic Republic of Congo, arguing that what happens there should matter to the United States—for humanitarian reasons as well as economic and strategic ones.
With the death toll in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo likely exceeding six million, the UN peacekeeping force needs beefing up, and both the Rwandan and Congolese governments should punish nationals guilty of violence against civilians, says CFR's John Campbell.
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.
Jeffrey Gettleman, East Africa bureau chief for the New York Times, examines African conflicts that have continued even without clear ideology and goals.
In this New York Times op-ed, Nicholas Kristof, who has been profiling the ongoing violence in eastern Congo against civilians, laments that the international response to this humanitarian crisis has been "pathetic," citing the 5.4 million people that have died in the conflict since April 2007 and urging the international community to show more compassion toward Congo.
Adam Hochschild emphasizes four major factors that continuously cause conflict in Congo: long-standing antagonism between certain ethnic groups, the 1994 Rwandan genocide, vast wealth in natural resources, and lastly, a vast population--65 million--in an area as big as the United States east of the Mississippi.
This International Crisis Group report examines the failed attempts of the past to dismantle the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR)--an insurgency with roots that go back to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda--and recommends a new approach to help end great civilian suffering and restore state authority in the eastern Congo.
The Council on Foreign Relations' David Rockefeller Studies Program—CFR's "think tank"—is home to more than seventy full-time, adjunct, and visiting scholars and practitioners (called "fellows"). Their expertise covers the world's major regions as well as the critical issues shaping today's global agenda. Download the printable CFR Experts Guide.
The author analyzes the potentially serious consequences, both at home and abroad, of a lightly overseen drone program and makes recommendations for improving its governance.
