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{
  "authors": [
    "Marina Ottaway",
    "Jeffrey Herbst",
    "Greg Mills"
  ],
  "type": "other",
  "centerAffiliationAll": "dc",
  "centers": [
    "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace"
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  "englishNewsletterAll": "democracy",
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  "primaryCenter": "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace",
  "programAffiliation": "DCG",
  "programs": [
    "Democracy, Conflict, and Governance"
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  "regions": [
    "Southern, Eastern, and Western Africa"
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Source: Getty

Other

Africa's Big States: Toward a New Realism

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.

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By Marina Ottaway, Jeffrey Herbst, Greg Mills
Published on Jan 28, 2004
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Democracy, Conflict, and Governance

The Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program is a leading source of independent policy research, writing, and outreach on global democracy, conflict, and governance. It analyzes and seeks to improve international efforts to reduce democratic backsliding, mitigate conflict and violence, overcome political polarization, promote gender equality, and advance pro-democratic uses of new technologies.

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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.

Click on the link above for full text of this Carnegie publication.

About the Authors
Marina Ottway
is senior associate in the Democracy and Rule of Law Project at the Carnegie Endowment. She is the coauthor of The Right Road to Sovereignty in Iraq (Carnegie Policy Brief No. 27) and author of Africa's New Leaders: Democracy or State Reconstruction (Carnegie Endowment, 1999) and Democracy Challenged: The Rise of Semi-Authoritarianism (Carnegie Endowment, 2003).
Jeffrey Herbst is professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of States and Power in Africa: Comparative Lessons in Authority and Control (Princeton University Press, 2000) and coauthor (with Greg Mills) of The Future of Africa: A New Order in Sight? (Adelphi Paper No. 361).
Greg Mills is national director of the South African Institute of International Affairs. He is the author of Poverty and Prosperity: Globalization, Good Governance and African Recovery (Cape Town, Tafelberg, 2002).

This publication is only available online.

About the Authors

Marina Ottaway

Former Senior Associate, Middle East Program

Before joining the Endowment, Ottaway carried out research in Africa and in the Middle East for many years and taught at the University of Addis Ababa, the University of Zambia, the American University in Cairo, and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.

Jeffrey Herbst

Greg Mills

Authors

Marina Ottaway
Former Senior Associate, Middle East Program
Marina Ottaway
Jeffrey Herbst
Greg Mills
Political ReformForeign PolicySouthern, Eastern, and Western Africa

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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