Not in DC: Reconciliation & Reconstruction for the Ivory Coast

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African elections, Alassane Ouattara, Council on Foreign Relations, International Crisis Group, Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo

Gbagbo shortly after his arrest.

I had promised a post on the absence of the Ivory Coast from the African policy discourse in Washington DC over the weekend.  Fortunately, the snowquester  has allowed me to focus on this.  I returned to the US following two years in Francophone Africa days before the 2010 1^st round election in the Ivory Coast and moved to DC about a month after the contested 2^nd round election, where the Constitutional Court controversially threw out votes for the challenger, Alassane Ouattara, allowing the incumbent, Laurent Gbagbo, to claim victory.

However, most of the world lined up behind Ouattara; Angola (and to a lesser extent South Africa) being the most notable exception.  A few months later, Gbagbo was forcibly removed from power, largely due to French assistance.

It is parallels to this crisis in events of the past weeks that have drawn me back to the precarious situation in the Ivory Coast. 

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George Washington University Engages Africa – The David Miller Lecture

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African elections, Amina Salum Ali, Antoinette Sayeh, David Miller Lecture, Elliott School African affairs, Obama Africa Policy, Todd Moss, US - Africa relations

The annual David Miller lecture, which I have only attended once, will be held tonight at the Elliott School for International Affairs.  GW has arranged a bevy of panelists (4, perhaps one for each year?) to speak on the next 4 years of US-Africa relations.

Antoinette Sayeh (former Liberian finance minister, now with the IMF) and Amina Salum Ali (AU rep to the US) clearly stand out as the more interesting speakers.  Also crowding the podium are Todd Moss of the Center for Global Development and a GW professor.  Given the limited time available, it would certainly have been preferable to focus on the two African speakers.

Todd Moss certainly has his choice of plumb speaking events in DC and he rarely offers any public insights that wouldn’t be contained in the pages of the Economist (though I must admit my experience with him is not extensive).