Q & A Archive

Last Saturday, Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe’s longtime opposition leader and head of the Movement for Democratic Change party, announced a new coalition intended to finally topple President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled the country since it attained independence in 1980. The grouping, known as MDC Alliance, features Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti, government critics who had previously broken ranks with Tsvangirai but now say they’re determined to join forces to defeat Mugabe in elections planned for next year. “We owe it to the thousands of Zimbabweans to make sure that in our lifetime we can remove the beast called ZANU-PF,” Biti […]

A data breach scandal involving the government’s failure to safeguard information from access by private contractors has ended the tenure of top ministers in Sweden’s government and threatened to bring down the ruling coalition. The scandal has also exposed the precariousness of the country’s newly fractured political system. In an email interview, Jonas Hinnfors, professor of political science at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg, explains the causes and implications of the scandal, and how a divided political system may or may not allow the ruling coalition to survive. WPR: What is the nature of the so-called data breach scandal, when did […]

The latest round of elections in East Timor ended peacefully, far removed from the tumultuous and violent period of a decade ago. But the country that has become a model of post-conflict democracy is not without its challenges, including an increasingly complex and contested political arena and a troubled economy. In an email interview, Sue Ingram, a longtime practitioner, consultant and adviser on governance and statebuilding in fragile states, explains how East Timor found its political footing after the 2006 crisis and what is on the horizon. WPR: What is the significance for East Timor of holding elections without U.N. […]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing series on LGBT rights and discrimination in various countries around the world. Plans for an annual festival in Singapore supporting LGBT rights came under threat last year when the government denied sponsorship requests from multinational companies. In the end, however, the Pink Dot festival went ahead with the backing of more than 100 Singaporean companies. In an email interview, Linda Lakhdhir, a legal adviser for the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch, describes Pink Dot’s significance and the challenges facing LGBT Singaporeans. WPR: What is the general human rights situation for […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Associate Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. The final week of campaigning before nationwide elections in Kenya began with two incidents that amplified fears of political violence. First, last weekend, a man armed with a machete managed to break into the home of Deputy President William Ruto, wounding one police officer and then fatally shooting another with a stolen rifle. It took 18 hours for security forces to kill him. Then, authorities announced Monday that a senior official with Kenya’s election commission had been found dead. […]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing series about education policy in various countries around the world. Turkey’s education system became fodder for international news stories this summer after authorities announced they would no longer teach Darwin’s theory of evolution in high school. The move takes place in the context of a dramatic expansion of religious education under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In an email interview, Dr. Lisel Hintz, assistant professor in the European and Eurasian Studies Program at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, explains how education has been used as a tool […]

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was born into a native Liberian family, meaning her parents were not descendants of the freed American slaves who established the country in the mid-19th century. As a girl, her mother was sent to work in the home of one of these Americo-Liberian families, who are also known as Congo people. Yet in “Madame President,” a biography released earlier this year, the New York Times reporter Helene Cooper notes that throughout her life, Sirleaf has run in the circles of the Congo elite while often being mistaken for one herself. After studying in the U.S., […]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent trip to Europe brought him to Hungary at a time when the government there was being accused of deploying anti-Semitic imagery and rhetoric in a campaign against billionaire George Soros. During a meeting with Central European leaders, a hot mic picked up Netanyahu bashing the European Union’s policy with respect to Israel as “actually crazy.” In an email interview, Dr. Toby Greene, an Israeli Institute Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, explains why these mini-scandals were somewhat beside the point for a visit focused […]

On Monday, a most intriguing photograph started circulating in print and on social media, raising eyebrows, stoking conspiracy theories, and simultaneously stirring worries and anticipation. The picture featured the firebrand Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, dour-faced and black-turbaned, sitting across from a relaxed and smiling Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the young royal who is steadily emerging as the de facto leader of the Sunni kingdom. The picture revealed their unlikely meeting a day earlier in the Saudi city of Jeddah, and it testified to the fact that the two men wanted to make sure their encounter became known […]

In announcing his resignation last month, Madagascar’s finance minister, Gervais Rakotoarimanana, said conditions were not in place for him to succeed in the role, though he did not elaborate. While respected by international donors, Rakotoarimanana was not as beloved by other members of the government, and the private sector also viewed him warily. In an email interview, Richard R. Marcus, professor and director of the Global Studies Institute and the International Studies Program at California State University, Long Beach, describes the politics behind Rakotoarimanana’s resignation and how it fits in with preparations for elections in 2018, which he says are […]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on LGBT rights and discrimination in various countries around the world. Sri Lanka has been pursuing constitutional reforms since President Maithripala Sirisena came to power in 2015. LGBT activists hope the process will yield legal protections that could curb abuses ranging from police harassment to job discrimination. While the island nation has been praised for a progressive policy on gender recognition for transgender people, same-sex sexual acts between consenting adults are still criminalized. In an email interview, Yuvraj Joshi, a law fellow with Lambda Legal who documented abuses against […]