Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at the India Africa Forum Summit, New Delhi, India, Oct. 29, 2015 (photo from the website of the Indian Prime Minister).

This week, India hosted representatives of 54 African countries for the third India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi, with security, investment and U.N. reform on the agenda. In an email interview, Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, the chief executive of the South African Institute of International Affairs, discussed India’s Africa outreach. WPR: How has India’s economic engagement in Africa expanded in recent years, and in what sectors and countries has India invested the most? Elizabeth Sidiropulos: Indian companies have been present on the continent for many decades, particularly in East Africa where, historically, there has been a large Indian diaspora. However, the relationship […]

A villager taps a rubber tree, Lubuk Beringin village, Bungo district, Jambi province, Indonesia (Photo by Tri Saputro for the Center for International Forestry Research).

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on the impact of falling oil and commodities prices on resource-exporting countries. A prolonged commodities slump has caused Indonesia’s economy to slow drastically. Last year, Indonesia saw its slowest growth rate since 2002; the currency lost 11 percent of its value; and trade levels were at their lowest since the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s. In an email interview, Arianto Patunru, a fellow in the Arndt-Corden department of economics at the Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy, discussed Indonesia’s economy and its dependence on commodities […]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pose before a meeting in New Delhi, India, Oct. 5, 2015 (AP photo by Saurabh Das).

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to India in early October was the second summit-level meeting she has had with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the span of a month. These talks have themselves been preceded by a flurry of other high-level exchanges. Both sides seem keen to dispel any notion of a lack of momentum in bilateral relations, a view that has arisen ever since Modi failed to meet Merkel in Berlin during his trip to Germany last year. Germany is eager to take advantage of Modi’s renewed push for economic growth through clean energy initiatives and manufacturing. Germany has […]

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron welcomes Chinese President Xi Xinping, London, Oct. 21, 2015 (10 Downing St. photo by Georgina Coupe).

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United Kingdom this week has largely attracted the wrong kind of headlines. Reactions from experts and officials in the United States and across Europe have been scathing, ranging from the bemused to the disturbed. Many contend that Britain’s China policy, at the instigation of Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, has been reduced solely to matters of commerce. Not only do strategic matters in Asia, human rights concerns, and threats to democracy in Hong Kong appear to be virtually absent from the U.K.’s considerations, the British government gives the impression of believing that […]

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi at the opening ceremony of the new section of the Suez Cana, Ismailia, Egypt, Aug. 6, 2015 (AP photo by Amr Nabil).

Consider three pieces of bad news from Egypt this week: low voter turnout—likely just as the government intended—in a sham election; the resignation of Egypt’s central bank governor as the currency continues to be devalued; and the arrest of a senior leader and chief financier of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Each development was a reminder of the state of Egypt under President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, a strongman who has ruled unilaterally without a parliament since 2013. The hope of democratic reform seems farther away than ever. The economy, in free fall since the popular uprising that led to Hosni Mubarak’s ouster […]

University of the Witwatersrand students march during a protest, Johannesburg, South Africa, Oct. 21, 2015 (AP photo by Themba Hadebe).

Students have been rallying at South Africa’s universities since Oct. 13 to oppose a planned 11.5 percent tuition hike, with public investment in education declining across the country. Protests came to a head Wednesday, when students in Cape Town marched on Parliament and clashed with police officers wielding stun grenades and tear gas, leading to numerous injuries and arrests. Protests have spread across the country, and classes have been suspended at 15 universities. The wave of protests comes amid a season of discontent among South Africa’s university students, primarily from the University of Cape Town—one of the most prominent academic […]

Guarani Indian men hold a meeting on opening up nature reserves to gas exploration, Iviyeca, Bolivia, June 26, 2015 (AP photo by Juan Karita).

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on the impact of falling oil and commodities prices on resource-exporting countries. Bolivian President Evo Morales has overseen remarkable economic growth since he took office in 2006, and last year the economy grew by 5.4 percent, thanks in large part to exports of gas and other natural resources. In an email interview, Jean-Paul Faguet, professor of the political economy of development at the London School of Economics, discussed Bolivia’s economy and its dependence on commodities. WPR: How effectively has the Bolivian government used the past decade’s commodity boom to […]

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena addresses the media in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Oct. 2, 2015 (AP photo by Eranga Jayawardena).

It has been a bad year for former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his nationalist support base, which comes predominantly from the country’s majority Sinhalese ethnic group. Rajapaksa’s rout in January’s presidential election, followed by his August defeat in parliamentary elections, can be seen as nothing short of a mandate from the Sri Lankan people to distance themselves from his authoritarian tendencies and divisive policies and move toward political reform and reconciliation. Rajapaksa managed to secure a parliamentary seat in Kurunegala district, a stronghold of the United People’s Freedom Alliance in the Sinhalese heartland. But his dissident faction of […]

Eurocopter executive Olivier Lambert and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, after signing an agreement, with French President Francois Hollande and Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, Paris, June 24, 2015 (AP photo by Remy de la Mauviniere).

France’s increasingly close rapport with Saudi Arabia under President Francois Hollande has incensed some of his critics, who label him a hypocrite for touting a human rights agenda while maintaining cozy ties with the oil-rich Gulf nation notorious for public executions and beatings. Just recently, Riyadh stoked international outrage over news that 20-year-old Ali al-Nimr, arrested four years ago during anti-government protests—along with hundreds of other, mostly Shiite protesters in the city of Qatif—would be sentenced to death. Although France has not been particularly outspoken on Saudi Arabia’s frequent executions—175 in 12 months, according to an Amnesty International report from […]

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim talks with other invited guests following President Enrique Pena Nieto's third state of the nation address at the National Palace, Mexico City, Sept. 2, 2015 (AP photo by Rebecca Blackwell).

Mexico’s cartels are known for their violence and ruthlessness, the control they exert over the drug trade and for Hollywood-esque escapes from so-called high-security prisons. But not much is known or even acknowledged outside the country about another network exerting significant power and doing its own damage to the country: an economic cartel that enjoys market domination in major sectors of the economy, beneficial treatment from the authorities and whose fortunes have skyrocketed at the expense of ordinary Mexicans. A new bi-annual report by Coneval, a Mexican government agency evaluating social policies, should raise the alarm. It showed that Mexico’s […]

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shakes hands with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the U.N. Headquarters, New York, Sept. 27, 2015 (Photo by the Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images).

During a meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York last week, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani focused on economic ties. They agreed to work closely to conclude recent talks on a mutual investment deal that would facilitate Japanese companies investing in Iran. Abe held out investment as an inducement for Iran to comply with the agreement to limit Tehran’s nuclear program inked between Iran and the six world powers, known as the P5+1, earlier this summer. But Japan is also keen to resume the flow of energy imports from […]

Protesters shout as they carry a banner featuring food products that are hard to find in grocery stores, with the Spanish words: "Wanted," Caracas, Venezuela, Aug. 8, 2015 (AP photo by Ariana Cubillos).

Miguel Rodriguez can’t quite believe what he’s planning to do on Dec. 6. A father of six, the 47-year-old farmer in Venezuela’s central state of Aragua has voted for the late Hugo Chavez, or for Chavez’s followers and initiatives, in all 17 elections since Chavez was first elected president in 1998. But Rodriguez is breaking his streak this year, abandoning Chavez’s anointed successor, President Nicolas Maduro, and vowing to vote for Chavez’s opponents in the Dec. 6 congressional elections. “I believed in Chavez and the revolution,” says Rodriguez, looking over his fields, which now lay fallow. “But now there is […]

Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon during a signing ceremony at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, Beijing, Sept. 2, 2015 (AP photo by Lintao Zhang).

Recent armed clashes in Tajikistan have raised new questions about Central Asia’s stability, just as China is deepening its role in the region and tying it to signature trade and investment plans. Chinese leaders have touted the region as an essential part of Beijing’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative, a land- and sea-based infrastructure network to connect eastern China with Western Europe through what it calls the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road. But China is not alone in Central Asia. Overlapping interests with Russia, the long-time kingmaker in a region that was part of the Soviet […]

The presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan at the Eurasian Economic Union summit, Moscow, Russia, Dec. 23, 2014 (AP photo by Maxim Shipenkov).

Earlier this week, during his address to the United Nations General Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin touched on a topic that was easily overlooked amid his claims about Ukrainian and Syrian sovereignty. “Contrary to the policy of exclusiveness, Russia proposes harmonizing original economic projects,” Putin intoned, citing “plans to interconnect the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), and China’s initiative of the Silk Road Economic Belt.” Putin promptly turned to other topics, letting any further details about linking the troubled Kremlin-backed EEU—made up of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia—with one of the two principal components of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ambitious […]

A scooter drives past an election campaign poster of the ruling center-right coalition that reads "Vote for Portugal, Portugal Forward", Lisbon, Oct. 1 2015 (AP photo by Armando Franca).

Portugal goes to the polls Sunday, but with high voter apathy, turnout is expected to be at its lowest since the country transitioned back to democracy in the 1970s . In an email interview, Thomas Bruneau, the vice president of Global Academic Professionals and professor emeritus at the Naval Postgraduate School, discussed Portuguese politics and what is at stake in Sunday’s election. WPR: What is current public opinion in Portugal toward austerity, and how will this affect Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho’s bid for re-election? Thomas Bruneau: Public opinion in Portugal toward austerity, which has resulted in unemployment, reduced pensions […]

Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo delivers his speech before Parliament members ahead of the country's Independence Day, Jakarta, Indonesia, Aug. 14, 2015 (AP photo by Tatan Syuflana).

On Oct. 20, 2014, Joko Widodo, popularly referred to as Jokowi, was sworn in as Indonesia’s new president—a champion of the people and pin-up for clean, open and efficient governance. What a difference a year can make. Over his first year in office, the limits to Jokowi’s power, political agenda and capacity to manage complex relationships have been repeatedly exposed. Powerful political oligarchs, an entrenched and entitled bureaucracy, an army eager to reinvigorate its relevance and a corruption-riddled justice sector—to name a few—were always going to present significant challenges to Jokowi’s presidency, and they didn’t delay. One of the most […]

A worker carries packages of goods to send outside the country, Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, May 13, 2015 (AP photo by Jorge Saenz).

On Sept. 15, police in Paraguay seized 650 kilograms of marijuana in Curuguaty, in the country’s southeast region near the border with Brazil. Substantial as this seizure was, it was not in itself a big story in a country where authorities claimed they seized 462 tons of marijuana in 2013. Paraguay is notoriously one of the largest producers of marijuana in Latin America. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Paraguay has in recent years produced approximately half of South America’s marijuana, second only in Latin America to Mexico. The estimated 600 metric tons of marijuana […]