International recognition for Somaliland should be conditioned on concrete economic and political reforms

Africa in 2025

2024: Year in Review

What sorts of reforms under Trump could reshape Africa-U.S. relations for the better?

The World Bank and other IFIs should get serious about climate adaptation in low-income countries

China as a Model Development Partner

Harris or Trump? What the outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election portends for America's Africa policy

Can better urbanization policies unlock faster economic growth and development in Nigeria?

On Nigeria’s bold but rudderless attempts at structural economic reforms: President Bola Tinubu’s lack of a focused agenda is blunting the impact of some of his bold reforms while also jeopardizing private sector growth

The geopolitics of the war in Sudan: How external actors are prolonging the war and complicating potential avenues to a peaceful settlement

What Kenyan protests tell us about economic management and the politics of reforms in African states: There is an urgent need to modernize economic management in African states. Unfortunately, so far there is little evidence that African governments are interested in structural economic change.

Kenyan Protests, Part Three: Thoughts on potential pathways forward: The case for why Ruto should stop scheming and instead focus on a narrow set of achievable goals to restore the fiscal pact, improve service delivery, and boost growth

Kenyan Protests, Part Two: How not to clean up a fiscal mess: Generalized erosion of fiscal pact and trust in government raise the specter of widespread tax evasion, proliferation of informality, and unmanageable deficits

Kenyan Protests, Part One: The political education of President William Ruto: Lessons on the difficulties of governing during turbulent economic times after campaigning as an anti-establishment populist.

Why exactly are major international firms leaving the Nigerian market?: Nigeria's myriad problems have decades-old origins, but the Tinubu administration bears responsibility for poor rollout of reforms

The potent powerlessness of Leftist politics in African states: A tale of people who want structural change but eschew the messy realities of economics and organized politics

Two unsolicited ideas on how to invest some of Melinda French Gates’ $12.5 billion: The case for bold risk taking to boost women-owned businesses and intensify learning on how to improve subnational service provision that targets women

Making lasting peace in the Sahel: There is certainly no silver bullet, but long-term thinking and fidelity to reality-based policies could put Sahelian states on the path to stability.

On the ongoing cocoa boom and what it tells us about the current state (and future) of African agriculture : Long relegated to the back burner, African agriculture — a sector that is critical for poverty reduction — is experiencing steady productivity decline and loss of labor. This must be reversed.

(Energy) poverty is very bad for humans and the environment : It’s time to stop pretending that the planet will be saved by maintaining energy poverty in low-income states

Gulf Cash & Influence in African States: There is enormous potential for Africa-Gulf relations to propel economic prosperity on both sides of the Red Sea; but only if both sets of leaders can overcome their lack of strategic ambition.

Policymaking for economic transformation in African states: what ought to be done : A simple case for embracing sound principles of economics and politics to improve policy design, implementation, and sustainability in the region

Academic research and policy research are two different things: The case for investing in context-specific policy research and implementation strategies

The case for keeping Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger within ECOWAS : On why the ECOWAS leadership should avoid playing into the hands of junta leaders in the Sahelian states

What next for Equatorial Guinea after oil? : Lessons in natural resource exploitation in African states