Month: January 2017

This Week in South Sudan – Week 4

Monday 23 January The New York Times: “Quandary in South Sudan: Should It Lose Its Hard-Won Independence?”  Tuesday 24 January South Sudan’s ambassador to Ethiopia dismissed reports that relations are strained between the two countries after President Salva Kiir visited Egypt and met with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi earlier this month. A senior SPLA (IO)… Read more »

Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

Many people are afraid of what faces us with Donald Trump as president. Nonetheless, I recommend keeping a cool head. My area of research should be useful for analyzing and understanding politics, namely political philosophy. This is the branch of philosophy that investigates political ideas and attempts to put them in context. The political philosopher… Read more »

This Week in South Sudan – Week 3

Monday 16 January The UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) vowed to find a solution to the issue of armed SPLA (IO) soldiers in eastern DRC. Salva Kiir has formed a committee to visit Maban area and… Read more »

On Bullshit and Research

Researchers who write articles or give interviews must be given approval rights over how their material is presented. My year as an academic has been bookended by a couple of awkward encounters between my own research and a new media reality. The year has also provided a rich crop of angry messages from strangers in… Read more »

No-Man’s Land

In the north-eastern corner of Jordan, thousands of Syrians are left stranded. In the north-eastern corner of Jordan, where the country borders both Iraq and Syria, a barrier resembling a mound of earth extends across the desert. Running parallel to this barrier is a second mound of earth, this time within Syrian territory. The area… Read more »

This Week in South Sudan – Week 2

Monday 9 January The SPLA (IO) claim their forces are still controlling up to 90 per cent of Nasir area in Upper Nile State. Both government forces and the SPLA (IO) claim they are in control over Morobo town, Central Equatoria. Tuesday 10 January The Government of South Sudan (GOSS) banned travel on the two… Read more »

This Week in South Sudan – Week 1

Monday 2 January The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting: “South Sudan: The Revenge of Salva Kiir” International Crisis Group Report: “South Sudan: Rearranging the Chessboard” Tuesday 3 January The Tanzanian pilot detained by the SPLA (IO) has been released. The security agencies in Juba arrested a group of 26 people from Somalia and Uganda suspected… Read more »

This Week in South Sudan – Week 52

Wednesday 28 December At least 15 people, including four government soldiers, have allegedly been killed in separate incidents in Torit town and surrounding villages in Eastern Equatoria over the past two weeks. SPLA (IO) detained a government official and his Tanzanian pilot after their plane landed in Ganyiel area, a rebel-held territory in Unity State. Thursday… Read more »