International Reports 10/2008

Ausgabe 10/2008 der Auslandsinformationen der Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung

by Gerhard Wahlers

A Country on its Way to One-Party Democracy

On September 5, 2008, Angola’s citizens went to the polls for the first time in 16 years to elect a new parliament, attentively observed by the international community. Both local and foreign observers were highly sceptical, for there is hardly any tradition of democracy in this country which is still profoundly marked by the civil war that ended in 2002, having lasted all of 27 years.

by Anton Bösl

The third High Level Forum (HLF3) on Aid Effectiveness initiated by the OECD was held in Accra, the capital of Ghana, early in September 2008, its objective being to assess the progress made so far in implementing the Paris Declaration of 2005 as well as to adopt a separate plan of action, the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA), to determine what should be done in the future.

by Klaus D. Loetzer

’Politics Putting its Oar in’

The result of the third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, the capital of Ghana, was anything but a lasting breakthrough in development cooperation. However, the agreement to assign more responsibility to the developing countries, to render assistance more transparent and interactive, to emphasize the concept of partnership, and to fight corruption together may be regarded as a substantial step that was achieved not least thanks to the consensus among the Europeans.

by Christian Ruck

Georgia’s government risked war with Russia. By this, Mikheil Saakashvili intended to make the global public, particularly the European Union (EU) and NATO, aware of the unresolved secession conflicts in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. His manoeuvre would have been successful if Georgia had brought about a withdrawal of Russia’s troops from the conflict zones. Conversely, Russia was very well prepared for the challenge of a military conflict with Georgia.

by Aschot Manutscharjan

On October 14, Canada elected its next parliament or, to be more precise, the 308-seat House of Commons in which prime minister Stephen Harper of the Conservative Party had been leading a minority government until then. Next to the ruling party, the elections were contested by the key opposition force, the Liberal Party of Canada led by Stéphane Dion, the New Democratic Party of Canada with Jack Layton at the helm, the Bloc Québécois headed by Gilles Duceppe, and the Green Party of Canada chaired by Elizabeth May.

by Norbert Wagner