Policy Briefs

line0.gif (136 bytes)

WPF Policy Brief 8: China: Good or Evil in  Africa?
China is transforming Africa, for good and ill. The United States and other traditional trading and aid partners of Africa need to pay closer attention than they are, and with Africans craft bold new policies that welcome Chinese investment and trade but condemn the taking of African jobs and the destruction of African industries. Africa and the West also need to persuade China that supporting Africa’s most reviled dictatorships is bad for Africa and bad for China as a world power and an Olympics host. Click here to read the full text, which discusses China’s emerging controversial role in Africa as investor, trader, buyer, and aid donor.

WPF Policy Brief 7: Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling: New Perspectives on an Old Problem
To cope with the pernicious problem of human trafficking and smuggling, Washington and its global allies need fundamentally to rethink their assumptions about the nature and size and the scope of the problem, and also how to combat it. The anti-trafficking effort should focus on local and global responses rather than on national ones. We should spend less time trying to isolate the size of the human trafficking problem and more time rigorously evaluating existing initiatives. Imperative is better information sharing among countries, agencies, and among those battling the trade in illicit goods, not just trade in humans. Only by embracing such recommendations can we possibly hope to replicate and build on the successes—and avoid repeating the failures—of past anti-trafficking efforts. Click here to read further about the above recommendations.

WPF Policy Brief 6: Ending Mayhem in the Sudan
Too many lives have been lost for too long. Misery, pillage, rape, and killing fields have disfigured the Sudan without effective regional or international intervention. Click here to learn how best to end the continuing humanitarian outrages in Darfur, the westernmost province of the Sudan.

WPF Policy Brief 5: State Building in Afghanistan
Effective state building in Afghanistan depends on strengthening security, providing serious new monetary incentives for wheat growing instead of poppy production, decreasing the hold of narco-terrorists, improving regional commercial linkages, enhancing the country’s sense of nationhood, and bolstering good governance. Click here to learn what Afghanistan's leadership and the international community should do to bolster this fragile, growing state.

WPF Policy Brief 4: Terror in Yemen and the Horn of Africa
Scouring the deserts and highlands of present and future terrorists in the troubled, war-torn region that comprises Yemen, the Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia demands urgent, skillful measures that are as much social, economic, and political as they must be military.
Click here for the full text, which offers recommendations about what steps the U.S., the international community, the region, and individual countries should take to combat the short-, medium-, and long-term threats of terrorism.

WPF Policy Brief 3: Identifying Rogue States: Issues of Policy and Action
Which are the true "rogue" states? What is "rogueness" in the international arena? Do rogue states share certain common characteristics? If so, what should be done to curtail rogue states? How can rogue states be encouraged to behave less roguishly?
Click here for the full text and answers to the above questions.

WPF Policy Brief 2: Nigeria on the Brink of Failure?
Nigeria remains unstable and hard to govern; the nation lacks unity but is rife with ethnic and sectarian conflicts. The country's oil is both a blessing and a curse. The future of Africa's largest state, a critical petroleum supplier to the U.S. thus continues to be of enormous concern to its citizens as well as policymakers in Africa, the United States, and Europe.
Click here for the full text and an analysis of Nigeria's strengths and weaknesses.


Contact |Home |Publications |Projects |Fellows |Links

line0.gif (136 bytes)