Uganda In A Multipolar Brave New World Order [Podcast]

The topsy-turvy democratic fortunes of Uganda in the emerging multipolar, brave new world order resonate powerfully with Professor Nye’s remarkable book, whose title asks a question on everyone’s lips today, namely, Is the American Century Over?

2. Former US Assistant Secretary of Defence for International Security Affairs Joseph Samuel Nye writes, “The short answer to our question is that we are not entering a post-American world. It is not possible for this (or any) book to see “the future,” because there are so many possible futures dependent on unpredictable events, and they play a larger role the further out one tries to look. Thus, it is important to specify a time horizon. For example, if the “American century” began in 1941, will the United States still have primacy in power resources and play a central role in the global balance of power among states in 2041? My guess is “yes.” In that sense, the American century is not over, but because of transnational and non-state forces, it is definitely changing in important ways.”

3. Nothing highlights with astonishing clarity the changing fortunes of the United States of America on the global stage more than Israel’s war on Hamas. It is against this reality that those of us who follow events in Africa must ask a simple question, namely, What’s the fate of Uganda, whose president, General Yoweri Museveni, is arguably America’s longest and strongest partner on the continent of Africa by a country mile?

4. No one is more qualified to look into the metaphorical crystal ball to help us answer this question than Dr. Helen Epstein, an American professor of human rights and public health with a special interest in Uganda and other countries in East Africa. Helen has conducted research on reproductive health and AIDS in Africa for such organisations as the Rockefeller Foundation, the Population Council, and Human Rights Watch, and her articles have appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, Granta Magazine, and many other publications.

5. In 1993, Helen relocated to Uganda where she worked on an AIDS vaccine research project and taught molecular biology in the medical school at Makerere University in Kampala.

6. A vaccine against HIV remains elusive even now, and Helen witnessed firsthand the suffering caused by AIDS, which was the subject of her 2007 book, The Invisible Cure: Why We Are Losing the Fight Against AIDS in Africa.

7. While working as a consultant in Uganda, Helen realized that despite massive donor investments in the health sector, the country’s maternal and infant mortality rates weren’t falling nearly as fast as those in other countries in the region. The reason wasn’t hard to find: Uganda’s institutions and leadership were, and remain, highly corrupt, and the international community has long turned a blind eye to the problem, at the cost of thousands of lives each year. Ugandan activists and politicians who have tried to draw attention to corruption have suffered arrest, torture and worse. At the centre of this troubling story is Uganda’s strategic military partnership with Washington in the Global War on Terror, which Helen describes in her 2017 book Another Fine Mess: America, Uganda and the War on Terror.

8. Helen obtained a PhD in Molecular Biology from Cambridge University, and an MSc in Public Health in Developing Countries from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Since 2010, she has been a visiting professor of human rights and global public health at Bard College in New York.

9. In this episode, we discuss the topic: Uganda in a Multipolar Brave New World Order.

10. Look up Episode 016 of Conversations with Stephen Kamugasa, and please subscribe to Conversations with Stephen Kamugasa podcast through your favourite podcast app to listen to the latest insights from our guest thought leaders.

Recommended Reading:

1. Another Fine Mess: America, Uganda, and the War on Terror (Columbia Global Reports, September 5, 2017). By Helen Epstein.