South Sudan

Despite a national dialogue in Sudan, fighting continues in Darfur and in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states. Negotiations toward ending hostilities between the government and armed opposition groups are deadlocked.

Their new report for the AU argued that the Union must move away from its reactive approach to violent conflict and draw on its inherent political strengths. Their extensive research included case studies of the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Somalia and South Sudan.

The Horn of Africa has experienced both advances and setbacks in recent years. In South Sudan, the hope following independence has been tarnished by the outbreak of war and the troubled peace process. In Somalia, al-Shabab and rising malnutrition slows progress on state building. And Eritreans fleeing their country’s oppression accounted for the third-largest group of refugees entering Europe last year, after Syria and Afghanistan. Across the Horn of Africa, corruption, militarization and military patronage undermine regional stability and sustainable peace..

Home to burgeoning economies and brutal civil conflicts – sometimes coexisting in the same country – Africa is increasingly prominent in the foreign policy agendas of world powers. In early August, President Obama will convene most of the heads of state of the 54 nations of Africa in Washington, D.C. for the first-ever summit between U.S. and African leaders. There will be no shortage of issues to discuss, from how to harness Africa's economic growth and lift large sections of its population out of poverty, to growing trade between the U.S.

Water is an undeniable, un-substitutable, and powerful factor in everyone’s life, from sustaining individual lives to defining both economic and social policies and practices. As populations and demand expand while supplies decline, access to water will become increasingly difficult, raising the prospects for conflict over this precious resource. By 2025, experts estimated that 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions of absolute water scarcity.