In 2017, Western Cape Premier Helen Zille declared the Western Cape a disaster area because of the drought. In March, the ruling African National Congress’ minister for cooperative governance, Zweli Mkhize, declared a national state of emergency. However, with the arrival of winter rains, Mkhize did not renew the state of emergency when it expired on June 13.

Below is a guest post by Claire Schachter, research associate in the International Institutions and Global Governance program. The Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank Group are underway in Was…

Hot winters in the Andes and Southern Cone threaten Latin America’s advantages; Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico aim to ride U.S. semiconductor industrial policy coattails; Colombia’s new ceasefire agreeme…

As the winter Olympics begin this week in Beijing, the Japanese parliament has added its voice to the global chorus of concern about human rights in China. 

Last week, the Liberian Supreme Court affirmed the ruling of a lower court which ordered the imprisonment of former Liberian Defense Minister Brownie Jeffrey Samukai Jr., for two years. A one-time deputy minister in the country’s Ministry of National Defense, Samukai was former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s pick to head the ministry when the latter took over the reins as president in January 2006.