Mailing address
124 Mt. Auburn Street Suite 190, Room 143
Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs
79 John F. Kennedy Street, Box 121
Cambridge, MA, 02138
Robert Rotberg
Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution
Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Contact:
Telephone: (617) 496-2258
Fax: (617)-491-8588
Email: robert_rotberg@harvard.edu
Experience
Robert I. Rotberg is Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and President, World Peace Foundation. He was Professor of Political Science and History, MIT; Academic Vice President, Tufts University; and President, Lafayette College. He is the author and editor of numerous books and articles on US foreign policy, Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, most recently, China into Africa: Trade, Aid, and Influence (2008), Worst of the Worst: Dealing with Repressive and Rogue Nations (2007), Building a New Afghanistan (2007), A Leadership for Peace: How Edwin Ginn Tried to Change the World (2006), Battling Terrorism in the Horn of Africa (2005), When States Fail: Causes and Consequences (2004), State Failure and State Weakness in a Time of Terror(2003), Ending Autocracy, Enabling Democracy: The Tribulations of Southern Africa 1960–2000 (2002), Peacekeeping and Peace Enforcement in Africa: Methods of Conflict Prevention (2001), Truth v. Justice: The Morality of Truth Commissions (2000), Creating Peace in Sri Lanka: Civil War and Reconciliation (1999), Burma: Prospects for a Democratic Future (1998), War and Peace in Southern Africa: Crime, Drugs, Armies, and Trade (1998), Haiti Renewed: Political and Economic Prospects (1997), Vigilance and Vengeance: NGOs Preventing Ethnic Conflict in Divided Societies (1996), From Massacres to Genocide: The Media, Public Policy and Humanitarian Crises (1996), and The Founder: Cecil Rhodes and the Pursuit of Power (1988, new ed. 2002).
AP Photo
December 13, 2008
"Uniting Against Mugabe's Corrupt Regime"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution
DESPERATE Zimbabweans cannot understand why Africa and the forces of world order have abandoned them in their hour of need, when what is left of their once wealthy nation decays irredeemably. President-elect Barack Obama has spoken critically of Africa's irresponsibility. So have French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. All three want Africa to eject Robert G. Mugabe, Zimbabwe's unelected ruling despot.
AP Photo
December 5, 2008
"An African Scorecard"
Op-Ed, International Herald Tribune
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution
African governance is getting better. That is a major, surprising, finding of the second annual Index of African Governance, produced at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and released last month.
October 6, 2008
Strengthening African Governance: Results and Rankings 2008
In the News
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution and Rachel Gisselquist, Research Director, Ibrahim Index of African Governance
All citizens of all countries desire to be governed well. That is what citizens want from the nation-states in which they live. Thus, nation-states in the modern world are responsible for the delivery of essential political goods to their inhabitants.
October 6, 2008
The 2008 Index of African Governance
Policy Brief
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution and Rachel Gisselquist, Research Director, Ibrahim Index of African Governance
Small states, island states, and Botswana, and South Africa are the best governed countries in sub-Saharan Africa according to this year’s Index of African Governance
AP Photo
October 5, 2008
Strengthening African Governance: Small States and Islands Top 2008 Rankings
Press Release
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution
Small states, island states, and Botswana and South Africa are the best governed countries in sub-Saharan Africa according to this year's Index of African Governance, released today by researchers at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Mauritius, an Indian Ocean island-state, tops the list of well-governed territories for the second year, the Seychelles is second, Cape Verde third, Botswana fourth, and South Africa fifth.
October 2008
China into Africa: Trade, Aid, and Influence
Book
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution
“Two myths have been concocted by the West on Africa: that the Western impact on Africa has been benign while China’s record in Africa has only been negative. The truth in both areas is more complex. This volume, China into Africa, brings out the complexity of the China story in Africa and illustrates why more balanced assessments are needed on Africa’s relations with the world”
--Kishore Mahbubani
Dean, the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore
AP Photo
June 25, 2008
"Who Will Have the Courage to Save Zimbabwe?"
Op-Ed, The Boston Globe
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution
AFTER Idi Amin terrorized and killed his own Ugandans throughout the 1970s, President Julius Nyerere of neighboring Tanzania finally sent his army across the border to end the mayhem and restore stability. Who will now do the same for beleaguered Zimbabwe?
May 6, 2008
"Turkmenistan under Niyazov and Berdymukhammedov"
In the News
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution
A monument of Turkmenistan’s former autocratic ruler, Saparmurat Niyazov, will be removed from the center of the country’s capital, the New York Times reported on Monday, May 5, 2008. The removal was ordered by Turkmenistan’s current president, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov. What seems to be a symbolic move away from the repression that has plagued Turkmenistan is more likely the removal of one autocratic legacy to make room for another.
May 6, 2008
"Assessing Repression in Syria"
In the News
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution
Even as evidence mounts pointing to a partnership between Syria and North Korea in the construction of a Syrian nuclear reactor, Syria and North Korea continue to deny the allegations, leading the U.S. to condemn both countries’ secrecy.
AP Photo
May 6, 2008
"Burma: Poster Child for Entrenched Repression"
In the News
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution
In late April, President Bush declared that the upcoming elections in Burma would not be “free, fair, or credible” and that the U.S. would impose further sanctions on the state-owned business sector, in order to increase pressure on the ruling junta.
