Alex De Waal Research Articles

Chosen Peoples: Christianity and Political Imagination in South Sudan

Chosen Peoples: Christianity and Political Imagination in South Sudan

Alex de Waal, New Pandemics, Old Politics: two hundred years of war on disease and its alternatives. Cambridge: Polity (hb £50 – 978 1 5095 4779 1; pb £15.99 – 978 1 5095 4780 7). 2021, 296 pp.

Alex de Waal, New Pandemics, Old Politics: two hundred years of war on disease and its alternatives. Cambridge: Polity (hb £50 – 978 1 5095 4779 1; pb £15.99 – 978 1 5095 4780 7). 2021, 296 pp. - Volume 92 Issue 3

Alex de Waal, New Pandemics, Old Politics: two hundred years of war on disease and its alternatives. Cambridge: Polity (hb £50 – 978 1 5095 4779 1; pb £15.99 – 978 1 5095 4780 7). 2021, 296 pp.

Alex de Waal, New Pandemics, Old Politics: two hundred years of war on disease and its alternatives. Cambridge: Polity (hb £50 – 978 1 5095 4779 1; pb £15.99 – 978 1 5095 4780 7). 2021, 296 pp. - Volume 92 Issue 3

Book Review: Maya Goldenberg, Vaccine Hesitancy: Public Trust, Expertise, and the War on Science Alex de Waal, New Pandemics, Old Politics: Two Hundred Years of War on Disease and Its Alternatives

Book Review: Maya Goldenberg, Vaccine Hesitancy: Public Trust, Expertise, and the War on Science Alex de Waal, New Pandemics, Old Politics: Two Hundred Years of War on Disease and Its Alternatives

Alex de Waal, New Pandemics, Old Politics: Two Hundred Years of War on Disease and Its Alternatives

Alex de Waal, <i>New Pandemics, Old Politics: Two Hundred Years of War on Disease and Its Alternatives</i>

Old politics in pandemic management

New Pandemics, Old Politics: Two Hundred Years of War on Disease and Its Alternatives, written by political scientist and Africanist Alex de Waal, is a clarion call to rethink the way in which societies respond to pandemic diseases. De Waal uses historical case studies of cholera, 1918 influenza, and HIV/AIDS to challenge readers to recognise the limitations of the current “war on disease” rhetoric that has dominated pandemic planning and responses since the late 19th century. Using the current COVID-19 pandemic to frame his analysis, de Waal dissects the historical choices which have produced the current policies of mass sequestration, reliance on curative services, and faith that medical technology through vaccination will bring “victory”.

Pacifist utopias: humanitarianism, tragedy and complicity in the Second World War

Pacifist utopias: humanitarianism, tragedy and complicity in the Second World War

New Pandemics, Old Politics: Two Hundred Years of War on Disease and Its Alternatives, Alex de Waal (Cambridge, U.K.: Polity, 2021), 284 pp., cloth $64.95, paperback $22.95, eBook $14.00.

New Pandemics, Old Politics: Two Hundred Years of War on Disease and Its Alternatives, Alex de Waal (Cambridge, U.K.: Polity, 2021), 284 pp., cloth $64.95, paperback $22.95, eBook $14.00.

Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine

Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine

The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa: Money, War and the Business of Power. By Alex de Waal. Malden, MA: Polity, 2015. 220p. $69.95 cloth, $24.95 paper.

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Response to Alex de Waal's review of The Horn of Africa

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Alex de Waal. The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa. Money, War and the Business of Power

Alex de Waal. The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa. Money, War and the Business of Power

The Commodification of African Politics I

Can a book be both inspiring and disappointing? The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa might just fall into this rare category. Alex de Waal’s book is theoretically original and empirically rich, but it is also reductionist and, in the case of Ethiopia, biased. The book makes sense of the Horn of Africa’s complex contemporary politics through the prism of three elements. Firstly, de Waal proposes an innovative theory centred on the idea of the ‘political marketplace’. This theory grasps the causal interactions between violence, political finance and big man politics in East Africa and elsewhere. The ‘political marketplace’ framework is arguably the book’s most important contribution and it speaks to political scientists and policy analysts. Secondly, as the title suggests, the book sets out to explain the Horn of Africa’s ‘real politics’.

The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa. Money, War and the Business of Power by Alex de Waal Cambridge: Polity Press, 2015. Pp. 267. £16·99 (pbk).

The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa. Money, War and the Business of Power by Alex de Waal Cambridge: Polity Press, 2015. Pp. 267. £16·99 (pbk).

The real politics of the Horn of Africa. By Alex De Waal

The real politics of the Horn of Africa. By Alex De Waal

Career Development

Anthropology NewsVolume 55, Issue 5 p. e42-e45 Career Development Career Development First published: 08 October 2014 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1556-3502.2014.55505.xCitations: 1AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Abstract ANTHROPOLOGY WORKS | Barbara Rylko Bauer, ed. “Profile in Practice: Toward Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding Through Local Perspectives” by Alex de Waal GATEWAY TO NSF | Deborah Winslow, ed. “New NSF Dissertation Research Improvement Grant Solicitation” Keywords: Peace, conflict resolution, local, NSF, funding, research Citing Literature Volume55, Issue5May 2014Pages e42-e45 RelatedInformation

The theory and practice of Meles Zenawi: A response to Alex de Waal

The theory and practice of Meles Zenawi: A response to Alex de Waal

Sudan: In a Procrustean Bed with Crisis

AbstractCivil war in Sudan ‐ first between the North and the South, then in Darfur ‐ extends over half a century, interrupted only by a spell of uneasy peace between 1972 and 1983. Over time, a number of analytical templates have been propounded to account for the quasi-permanent crisis. The causes for conflict in Sudan have thus been pegged to the legacy of colonialism, ethno-religious divide, Islamist terrorism, a resource war, state failure, regional conflict concatenation, genocide, and a “turbulent state paradigm” (Alex de Waal). This article takes stock of the various frameworks offered for explanation both in academic writing and the broader media discourse on Sudan. The critical assessment provides for a rehearsal of available scholarship and leads to three interlocking conclusions: (1) the translation of local/national conflict into relevant international language is a form of reciprocal resource mobilization; (2) conflict analysis, and with all the more reason conflict management, are always part of the unfolding crisis they strive to come to terms with; and (3) conflict analysis ought to be predicated on an “uncertainty principle” akin to the one postulated by Werner Heisenberg for quantum physics, because the momentum of a conflict and its analytical fixation inexorably escape each other.

Should President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan Be Charged and Arrested by the International Criminal Court?

The recent activity at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague concerning the case of President Omar al-Bashir and the crisis in Darfur has set off a firestorm of commentary amongst international lawyers, human rights activists, genocide scholars, experts on Sudan, and journalists, among others. Some argue that the ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, was correct in charging al-Bashir with genocide and crimes against humanity; others believe that he had little to no grounds for doing so. Furthermore, while some see the prosecutor's charges of genocide as questionable, at best, and highly counterproductive, if not dangerous, at worst, others see the genocide charge as positive and a move toward ending impunity for genocide. The same is largely true of the arrest warrant that the ICC has issued for President al-Bashir's arrest. Dr. Alex de Waal, an Oxford-trained social anthropologist, a fellow of the Global Equity Initiative at Harvard University, and the director of Justice Africa in London; an...

Case Closed: &lt;i&gt;A Prosecutor Without Borders&lt;/i&gt;

Case Closed: A Prosecutor Without Borders Julie Flint and Alex de Waal Eleven years ago, celebrating the creation of the world’s first permanent International Criminal Court, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan spoke of “a gift of hope to future generations, and a giant step forward in the march towards universal human rights and the rule of law.” Reflecting on the birth of the United Nations amidst the struggle against genocide, war crimes, and aggression half a century earlier, Annan noted how the idea of a world criminal court had been stillborn, strangled by the superpower rivalry of the Cold War. Only with the triumph of Western liberalism, and the horrors in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, had this changed. The International Criminal Court (ICC), Annan said, “is an achievement which, only a few years ago, nobody would have thought possible.”