Major powers are ever-more aware of Congo’s importance as they jockey for access to Congolese minerals vital to a clean energy transition and wake up to the global importance of Congo’s carbon sinks. But the will of the Congolese people—and their ability to determine the course of their country—remains stifled.

Following anti-racism protests in Belgium, King Philippe, in a letter to Felix Tshisekedi, president of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), expressed his "regret" over his country’s exploitation of DRC.

A looming crisis of succession in several African countries indicates a troubling persistence of ego-driven political paternalism.

Pena Nieto’s structural reforms in Mexico have yielded a few quick gains, mostly in telecom prices and access to credit, but most of the benefits are yet to come. However many may not, as justified frustration with the government’s fiscal mismanagement and corruption leads voters to turn away from a more open economic model before the advantages appear.

In the daily Africa in Transition blog, on February 6, 2019, Ambassador Michelle Gavin, a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations Africa Program, harshly criticized the United States government’s policy toward the December 2018 presidential election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.