Robert I. Rotberg
Robert I. Rotberg is Fulbright Research Professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University and a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation.
Robert I. Rotberg's Latest Posts
Curbing corruption in Africa
Corruption is everywhere — in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Russia and Brazil. It persists in much of the rest of Asia beyond China, and is rampant in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. Of the lowest 50 performers on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) and the World Bank’s Control of […]
Mobile phones propelling Africa’s renaissance
Africa’s latest renaissance is propelled in substantial part by the remarkable indigenous technological transformation of a hand-held computerized gadget — the mundane mobile telephone — into a powerful instrument for human advancement. Africa pioneered gathering and transmitting merchandizing and market information. More recently, it invented and popularized banking and financial transmission by mobile device. Now […]
Drugs, crime and terror in Africa
The wars of Africa are fuelled by narcotics. That is an exaggerated over-simplification, but many of the internal conflicts of today’s Africa are driven, in part, sometimes a substantial part, by profits being made from the trafficking of hard drugs and precursor chemicals. The battles in Mali, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of […]
Africa’s growing dependence on China
Africa’s survival depends on China. At the very least, sub-Saharan Africa’s rapid GDP growth rates — an estimated 6.3 percent this year and 5.1 percent last — rely on continued strong demand from China (growing this year at about 7.6 percent) for the vast commodity resources of the continent. Africa has an abundance of the […]
Slaughtering the innocent
Poachers have killed 300 gentle rhinoceroses since the beginning of 2014 in South Africa alone. So far this year, throughout the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, poachers have gunned down another 15,000 unsuspecting elephants. Lions are dying out, too. Fabled Africa, with its profusion of big game, is now imperiled by Asian greed, rampant corruption in […]
South Africa’s time of trouble
CAPE TOWN: Nelson Mandela’s death leaves political South Africa without any living moral compass. Symbolically, but tellingly, President Jacob Zuma was roundly booed when he spoke at Mandela’s memorial service. The country’s vibrant media carry constant stories about the declining popularity of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), Mandela’s party and the nation’s historical liberation […]
Overcoming Africa’s critical challenges
Sustaining sub-Saharan Africa’s current welcome prosperity, especially an average annual GDP growth of five percent, will demand enhanced or better political leadership, improvements in prevailing methods of governance, a canny embrace of Chinese mercantilism and the ability to cope successfully with or effectively manage the many serious problems — demographics, energy shortfalls, paucities of educational […]
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