Africa's Arc of Misery: Sudan
New Thinking for a New World - a Tallberg Foundation Podcast
05/11/23
•29m
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Sudan is at war with itself. The revolution that drove Omar al-Bashir from office after 30 years produced coups, conflict and military rule rather than peace, democracy and prosperity. Today two generals—Abdel Fattah al-Burhan of the Sudanese Army and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo of the Rapid Support Forces—are locked in mortal combat for control. The price of their rivalry is enormous: hundreds dead, millions displaced internally and across borders, spreading hunger and disease, and a crushed economy.
The tragedy of Sudan is compounded by the risk of broader conflict in the Horn of Africa, which abounds with deep-seated conflicts and tensions. There is a real possibility of a regional war, stoked by outside powers, which would have consequences far beyond Khartoum. So far the diplomats have failed to find even a temporary solution.
Unraveling all this is complicated, so in this episode of New Thinking for a New World, we turn to Samah Salman, a Sudanese businesswoman and civil society leader. At the moment she is in Washington D.C. trying to help her country find peace.
What do you think?
Previous Episode
Worth Repeating: Looking for Justice, One Person at a Time
May 4, 2023
•35m
2023 has become a year of recession, inflation, social and labor unrest, war, the ravages of climate, food insecurity, and rising inequality. One casualty of that mess is the rule of law; justice seems to take a beating when times are bad. Why is that?
The demand for justice is not only a basic human right, but also a human need. Yet justice systems in many countries, rich and poor, are too cumbersome, too wrapped up in formalities, too layered with complex and even contradictory laws. Is it possible to deliver effective justice at the individual level, to actually make justice systems work for people?
Our guest, Sam Muller, believes the answer is an emphatic, “Yes,” especially if it is based on data. As a Dutch legal expert he founded and today leads the Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL). He and his colleagues are in the business of building “people-centered justice” that works for everyone.
What do you think?
This episode was originally published on January 19, 2023
Next Episode
Is India Back?
May 18, 2023
•37m
India's backstory is largely unknown in the West. Between the 1st and 17th centuries AD, the country had the world's largest economy, controlling as much as one-third of global wealth. But that seemingly endless prosperity was followed by almost 500 years of decline as India was plundered and pushed aside by modern powers.
Fast forward to 2023: India is the world's most populous nation with one of the largest economies. The three trillion dollar Indian economy is expected to grow faster this year than any other major country in the world. Foreign investment is pouring in, partly looking for a safe haven from China's geopolitical ambitions and partly seeking to participate in India's new dynamism.
The man who has presided over this renaissance—Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in office since May 2014—is a global rock star. Indeed, some pollsters make the case that he is the most popular leader in the world. He has brought a degree of stability to a country where political violence used to be endemic and somehow produced an economically and geopolitically resurgent India. His and the country's importance are recognized by India's 2023 presidency of the G-20, as well as the West's aggressive courting of Modi and India as rivals to Xi and China.
Yet Western (as well as some Indian) critics worry that Modi's version of democracy is too autocratic and inward-looking, too rooted in Hindu nationalism to be sustainable. And they are skeptical that India has an economic model that can sustain the kind of outsize growth that transformed China from a country with lots of people to an economic superpower. Is India's continuing rise inevitable? Can India leverage all those people and their aspirations into supersized economic growth and power? Or might the underlying centrifugal forces of religion, inequality, and nationalism—and the sheer weight of almost 1.5 billion people—overwhelm what Modi and other Indian public and private sector leaders have set in motion? Could India really become an alternative to China?
Milan Vaishnav is a senior fellow and director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington and an accomplished India watcher. He shared some answers in a recent New Thinking for a New World podcast.
What do you think: Will India continue its evolution to become a global power?
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