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Howard W. French

Howard W. French

Howard W. French is the author of A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa and as a fellow for the Open Society Foundations, a forthcoming book on China's relationship with Africa. He teaches at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and is a former senior writer and foreign correspondent for the New York Times. More

Howard W. French is an associate professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is a former senior writer and correspondent for The New York Times, where he was bureau chief in Shanghai, Tokyo, Abidjan (West and Central Africa), and for Central America and the Caribbean. Since leaving the Timesin August 2008 his writing has been featured in The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, The International Herald Tribune, and many other publications.

He is the author of A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa, and is currently working on a book about China and Africa (Knopf). Howard French is also a documentary photographer, with a book forthcoming in 2011 titled Disappearing Shanghai. Howard's photography and other work can be seen on his blog.

The Next Asia Is Africa: Inside the Continent's Rapid Economic Growth

The Next Asia Is Africa: Inside the Continent's Rapid Economic Growth

As African economies grow, its societies are changing as well.… More »

Against All Odds: How 'Crazy' Kim Jong Il Outfoxed the World

Against All Odds: How 'Crazy' Kim Jong Il Outfoxed the World

Underestimated since he took power in 1994, the North Korean leader is shrewder, smarter, and saner than the popular caricatures give him credit for… More »

And Once More the World Shrugs at the Congo

And Once More the World Shrugs at the Congo

Could last week's flagrantly stolen election finally lead the world's leaders to insist on more and better from the Congo, and from their own engagement with it?… More »

Issue November 2011

E. O. Wilson’s Theory of Everything

At 82, the famed biologist E. O. Wilson arrived in Mozambique last summer with a modest agenda—save a ravaged park; identify its many undiscovered species; create a virtual textbook that will revolutionize the teaching of biology. Wilson’s newest theory is more ambitious still. It could transform our understanding of human nature—and provide hope for our stewardship of the planet.… More »

In Africa, an Election Reveals Skepticism of Chinese Involvement

In Africa, an Election Reveals Skepticism of Chinese Involvement

Zambians have voted out president seen as closely aligned with China, which has sent thousands of workers and managers here and to other Sub-Saharan countries… More »

Don't Dismiss a Jasmine Moment in China

Don't Dismiss a Jasmine Moment in China

The Chinese government is taking the possibility of pro-democracy protests seriously--and that's what activists want… More »

How Qaddafi Reshaped Africa

How Qaddafi Reshaped Africa

The Libyan leader's dark legacy already includes some of the continent's worst regimes and conflicts… More »

The View of Cairo from Authoritarian International

The View of Cairo from Authoritarian International

China will have an unusually difficult time spinning news of Egypt's democratic revolution as an unthreatening narrative… More »

Taking Flight in Africa: Air Travel, Soft Power, and Development

Taking Flight in Africa: Air Travel, Soft Power, and Development

While China has already heavily invested in African infrastructure, there are still opportunities for the U.S. to get involved… More »

Rethinking African Crises: Congo 1960, Ivory Coast 2010

Rethinking African Crises: Congo 1960, Ivory Coast 2010

To understand today's problems, we take a look back at the early history of independence-era African politics… More »

The Tragic Decline of Ivory Coast

For my first post as an Atlantic correspondent I am returning to the country, Ivory Coast, where I first committed journalism, at the start of the 1980s.Why pick such an obscure topic, an African country that is neither hugely oil rich, nor home to a besieged white minority, nor the imagined base of Islamic terrorists?Yes, Ivory Coast has been in the news steadily in recent weeks, the scene of a dangerous showdown between a leader who was defeated in a democratic…… More »

Issue May 2010

The Next Empire

All across Africa, new tracks are being laid, highways built,ports deepened, commercial contracts signed—all on an unprecedented scale, and led by China, whose appetite for commodities seems insatiable. Do China’s grand designs promise the transformation,at last, of a star-crossed continent? Or merely its exploitation? The author travels deep into the heart of Africa, searching for answers.… More »

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A Ring of Fire: The 2012 Annular Eclipse

May 21, 2012

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