The 29th annual Camden Conference, The New Africa, asserted that today’s Africa is radically different from the continent portrayed in most textbooks or even in much of the contemporary media. It’s home to the world’s poorest nations, yet a dozen of its economies maintained seven percent growth over the last decade. While Africa is a major global provider of mineral and other natural resources, Africans today are increasingly questioning the corrupt practices of the past and are now seeking the benefits of these resources. Africa’s population is ballooning, creating a youthful culture that can help sustain economic expansion and cultural adaptation, but it carries the threat of the kind of violence that has engulfed much of the similarly youthful Middle East. It is also prey to massive ecological degradation, alongside rich and creative cultures and vibrant civil societies.Perhaps the most striking aspect of Africa today, though, is the determination of Africans to frame their own future, breaking free of their colonial heritage to find African solutions. The New Africa considered what foreign and regional policies Africans are espousing for themselves and assessed what US policy has been and should be toward this massively diverse continent.
Snapshots from the Continent: Where Sub-Saharan Africa is Today…and Where it may be Heading
Ofeibea Quist-Arcton
West Africa Correspondent for NPR (National Public Radio) News, based in Dakar, Senegal
China Transformed?
Some Historical Perspectives
on Chinese Society
Michael Tsin
Associate Professor of History and International Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
China’s Economic Growth:
Implications and Challenges
Philip H. Brown
Assistant Professor of Economics, Colby College
China, Japan, and the Korean Peninsula,
Can it Work?
James R. Lilley
Former U.S. Ambassador to China and Korea, Former Director of The American Institute in Taiwan
China Transformed?
Some Historical Perspectives
on Chinese Society
Michael Tsin
Associate Professor of History and International Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
China’s Economic Growth:
Implications and Challenges
Philip H. Brown
Assistant Professor of Economics, Colby College
China, Japan, and the Korean Peninsula,
Can it Work?
James R. Lilley
Former U.S. Ambassador to China and Korea, Former Director of The American Institute in Taiwan
China Transformed?
Some Historical Perspectives
on Chinese Society
Michael Tsin
Associate Professor of History and International Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
China’s Economic Growth:
Implications and Challenges
Philip H. Brown
Assistant Professor of Economics, Colby College
China, Japan, and the Korean Peninsula,
Can it Work?
James R. Lilley
Former U.S. Ambassador to China and Korea, Former Director of The American Institute in Taiwan
China Transformed?
Some Historical Perspectives
on Chinese Society
Michael Tsin
Associate Professor of History and International Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
China’s Economic Growth:
Implications and Challenges
Philip H. Brown
Assistant Professor of Economics, Colby College
China, Japan, and the Korean Peninsula,
Can it Work?
James R. Lilley
Former U.S. Ambassador to China and Korea, Former Director of The American Institute in Taiwan