Africa's Big States: Toward a New Realism

Publication Date: January 2004

Publisher: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Author(s): Greg Mills; Jeffrey Herbst; Marina Ottaway

Research Area: International relations

Type: Brief

Abstract:

Big African states are among the least successful on the continent. Countries with a combination of a large land mass and a sizeable population tend to be chronically unstable politically and economically. Allowing their problems to fester, the case all too often in the past, is a source of continuing hardship to their citizens and neighbors alike. The international community needs to consider a new approach to the problems of these nations.