2008 Woodie Awards
Kenya peace deal represents wave of open dialogues
Morgan Riedl
Issue date: 3/4/08 Section: OpEd Page
The peace agreement concluded in Kenya offers a glimpse of the often overlooked power of communication, particularly that which takes place behind the scenes. A brief survey of recent news out of Africa reveals a struggling continent absorbed in conflict. Demands from human rights groups in this country and abroad have called for intervention to bring peace to the region. Awareness campaigns on the part of these organizations stirred popular support, most noticeably in the public outcry over what the American government has called genocide in Darfur. While the label is of debatable accuracy because it oversimplifies the politics of the conflict, the rampant violence in the Sudanese province needs no name to be recognized as a problem. Still, the question that remains for the United States is what can be done? Criticisms of all sorts have been leveled against the Bush administration's fumbling foreign policy. A great many of them are valid, but plenty others are untenable simply because they overlook the complexity of international relations. Anger over the administration's passivity in response to election controversies as in Ethiopia and Nigeria begs a return to the question raised by the situation in Darfur: What can be done?
Ignoring the problem is an option, and it neither attractive nor feasible in a world where the public has easy access to information and is increasingly willing to voice the opinions drawn from it. Official statements condemning the bad and the endorsing the good, which we've been witness to on multiple occasions, are merely attempts to ignore the problem but not appear to be doing so. However, direct intervention in conflicts where our participation is not requested is not an effective solution either, proven by Iraq. Those clamoring for the United States to do more in Africa need to realize that more, particularly when it means more force, is not always better.
If we were to commit to policing any one of the states embroiled in conflict, we would soon understand, as we have realized in Iraq, how little we understood going in. Iraq does not offer the best parallel, for the United States had a history of involvement and could have anticipated the sectarian division that emerged following the invasion. Considering how truly foreign the politics of certain African nations are like Darfur is to us, we cannot expect to repeat even the little success we have experienced in Iraq.
Ignoring the problem is an option, and it neither attractive nor feasible in a world where the public has easy access to information and is increasingly willing to voice the opinions drawn from it. Official statements condemning the bad and the endorsing the good, which we've been witness to on multiple occasions, are merely attempts to ignore the problem but not appear to be doing so. However, direct intervention in conflicts where our participation is not requested is not an effective solution either, proven by Iraq. Those clamoring for the United States to do more in Africa need to realize that more, particularly when it means more force, is not always better.
If we were to commit to policing any one of the states embroiled in conflict, we would soon understand, as we have realized in Iraq, how little we understood going in. Iraq does not offer the best parallel, for the United States had a history of involvement and could have anticipated the sectarian division that emerged following the invasion. Considering how truly foreign the politics of certain African nations are like Darfur is to us, we cannot expect to repeat even the little success we have experienced in Iraq.
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