Interview With Koffi Kouakou (APSACO 2019)

Their boat-if you name a large rubber pumped up like a giant tire, was rocked by waves, and the engine halted its movements. On November 24, all the 29 passengers tried to reach coastguard stations in France and England via their cell phones few minutes between life and death. No one answered, and when finally contact was established by another, still floating migrant boat, witnessing the tragedy in the making (New York Times December 14, 2021), they were asked to pinpoint their l ...

Based in Washington DC, where he launched the Accountability Lab in 2012, this British citizen describes himself as « inquisitive, energetic and values-driven ». He heads a global « translocal network » which is expanding rapidly and about to open new local labs in Uganda and Somalia. The Lab, a non profit organization, currently employs 104 people in 14 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The aim is to make governments more transparent and accountable, through positive c ...

The African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU) have never struggled to list common areas of interest or set up thematic partnerships and joint initiatives. The persistent challenge however is translating these partnerships into impact for both blocs of nations, particularly where interests diverge, such as those related to migration and green transition. Fifteen years since the critical Lisbon summit and the Joint Africa-EU Strategy, the time to move is now. To make the partners ...

Using education and elite configurations as the main variables of analysis, this Policy Paper aims to show how higher levels of popular sector incorporation during elite conflicts, namely in the process of formulating and implementing policies related to education reforms, can negatively affect the economic complexity of developing countries. To do so, it analyzes the experiences of Mauritius and Singapore and links foundational political economy theories, particularly developmental ...

“Hiring outsiders to fight your battles is as old as war itself”. Peter W. Singer (2011) Mercenaries, private contractors, soldiers of fortune, dogs of war, guns for hire, war lords ... These are some of the names given to individuals working for private companies that provide military and security services. The debate around the use of these companies is deeply polarized, with some authors portraying such military contractors as ‘messiahs’, praising their efficiency in modern conf ...

Si les liens existant entre l’exportation de matières premières et l’industrialisation sont étudiés depuis longtemps, l’entrée résolue de l’économie mondiale dans l’ère de la transition environnementale et numérique leur offre une dimension toute particulière. L’évidence de la lutte contre le réchauffement climatique par la décarbonation de notre monde ne saurait, en effet, faire oublier toute la complexité de la stratégie à adopter pour y parvenir. Il s’agit, pour l ...

Almost ten years after the beginning of the security crisis in the Sahel, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger face a graver predicament than ever before. In the throes of multiple insurgencies, they and their foreign patrons, including France, have shown the limits of military containment. While these three countries are the victims of terrorist aggression, their crises also have deep domestic roots, including long-standing patterns of state abuses of their populations, even in the more d ...