Recommendations from our site
“The argument Wrong makes, particularly well, is the ability of the Kagame regime to exploit memory and history in order to strengthen itself, and to establish connections with powerful western allies so that even when the regime goes well beyond what is needed for security, and engages in extra-territorial repression, kidnappings, assassinations, there is a very small price to pay—or even no price to pay at all.” Read more...
The best books on State-Sponsored Assassination
Luca Trenta, International Relation
“Do Not Disturb is a study of power. It’s about how it is exercised by a very particular group of people, led by Paul Kagame, in Rwanda. It’s about the Tutsis who were exiled in Uganda and then invaded Rwanda at the time of the Tutsi massacres and took over the country. She tells the story of how these extraordinarily able politicians turned on themselves, killing opponents both Hutu and Tutsi, and yet, at the same time, remain the darlings of the international media, international donors, and Western powers more generally.
She tells much of the story through the life and actions of the intelligence chief of Rwanda for many years, who was murdered by the Kagame regime in a hotel room in South Africa. It’s a remarkable study of systematic mendacity in politics and of the exercise of power in general so that although it’s closely tied to the particular case of Rwanda, it is also very much a story of modern global politics. It is a study in repression, of the nature of secret services. It is also a study of multiple differentiations and how they affect politics: ethnic differences, those between pastoralists and farmers, Protestants and Catholics, anglophones and francophones, and the politics of the left and national liberation movements.
It’s also relevant now because we have a British government program of sending migrants to Rwanda. The Kagame regime is essentially going to make money out of taking on responsibility for these migrants.”
The Best Politics Books of 2022, recommended by David Edgerton
