Another Fine Mess: America, Uganda, and the War on Terror
Is the West to blame for the agony of Uganda and its neighbors?

In this powerful account of Ugandan dictator Yoweri Museveni’s 30 year reign, Helen Epstein chronicles how Western leaders’ single-minded focus on the War on Terror and their naïve dealings with strongmen are at the root of much of the turmoil in eastern and central Africa.

Museveni’s involvement in the conflicts in Sudan, South Sudan, Rwanda, Congo, and Somalia has earned him substantial amounts of military and development assistance, as well as near-total impunity. It has also short-circuited the power the people of this region might otherwise have over their destiny.

Epstein set out for Uganda more than 20 years ago to work as a public health consultant on an AIDS project. Since then, the roughly $20 billion worth of foreign aid poured into the country by donors has done little to improve the well-being of the Ugandan people, whose rates of illiteracy, mortality, and poverty surpass those of many neighboring countries. Money meant to pay for health care, education, and other public services has instead been used by Museveni to shore up his power through patronage, brutality, and terror.

Another Fine Mess is a devastating indictment of the West’s Africa policy and an authoritative history of the crises that have ravaged Uganda and its neighbors since the end of the Cold War.
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Another Fine Mess: America, Uganda, and the War on Terror
Is the West to blame for the agony of Uganda and its neighbors?

In this powerful account of Ugandan dictator Yoweri Museveni’s 30 year reign, Helen Epstein chronicles how Western leaders’ single-minded focus on the War on Terror and their naïve dealings with strongmen are at the root of much of the turmoil in eastern and central Africa.

Museveni’s involvement in the conflicts in Sudan, South Sudan, Rwanda, Congo, and Somalia has earned him substantial amounts of military and development assistance, as well as near-total impunity. It has also short-circuited the power the people of this region might otherwise have over their destiny.

Epstein set out for Uganda more than 20 years ago to work as a public health consultant on an AIDS project. Since then, the roughly $20 billion worth of foreign aid poured into the country by donors has done little to improve the well-being of the Ugandan people, whose rates of illiteracy, mortality, and poverty surpass those of many neighboring countries. Money meant to pay for health care, education, and other public services has instead been used by Museveni to shore up his power through patronage, brutality, and terror.

Another Fine Mess is a devastating indictment of the West’s Africa policy and an authoritative history of the crises that have ravaged Uganda and its neighbors since the end of the Cold War.
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Another Fine Mess: America, Uganda, and the War on Terror

Another Fine Mess: America, Uganda, and the War on Terror

by Helen C. Epstein
Another Fine Mess: America, Uganda, and the War on Terror

Another Fine Mess: America, Uganda, and the War on Terror

by Helen C. Epstein

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Overview

Is the West to blame for the agony of Uganda and its neighbors?

In this powerful account of Ugandan dictator Yoweri Museveni’s 30 year reign, Helen Epstein chronicles how Western leaders’ single-minded focus on the War on Terror and their naïve dealings with strongmen are at the root of much of the turmoil in eastern and central Africa.

Museveni’s involvement in the conflicts in Sudan, South Sudan, Rwanda, Congo, and Somalia has earned him substantial amounts of military and development assistance, as well as near-total impunity. It has also short-circuited the power the people of this region might otherwise have over their destiny.

Epstein set out for Uganda more than 20 years ago to work as a public health consultant on an AIDS project. Since then, the roughly $20 billion worth of foreign aid poured into the country by donors has done little to improve the well-being of the Ugandan people, whose rates of illiteracy, mortality, and poverty surpass those of many neighboring countries. Money meant to pay for health care, education, and other public services has instead been used by Museveni to shore up his power through patronage, brutality, and terror.

Another Fine Mess is a devastating indictment of the West’s Africa policy and an authoritative history of the crises that have ravaged Uganda and its neighbors since the end of the Cold War.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780997722925
Publisher: Columbia Global Reports
Publication date: 09/05/2017
Pages: 262
Product dimensions: 5.00(w) x 7.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Helen Epstein is Visiting Professor of Global Public Health and Human Rights at Bard College in Annandale, New York. Her book The Invisible Cure: Why We Are Losing the Fight against AIDS in Africa (Picador 2008), was a New York Times Notable Book and was Amazon.com's best science book of 2007. Her articles have appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, Harper's and other publications and she has worked as a consultant for such organizations as the World Bank, UNICEF and Human Rights Watch.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"As her new book reveals, Helen Epstein is an eloquent advocate of human rights and democracy for Africans, as well as a courageous critic of how U.S. aid supports oppressive dictators like Yoweri Museveni in Uganda."
- William Easterly, Professor of Economics at NYU and author of The Tyranny of Experts and The White Man's Burden

"For decades, Western policy-makers have hailed Uganda's Yoweri Museveni as a benign autocrat, a charming African Bismarck and trusted partner in the fight against Islamic fundamentalism. Another Fine Messreveals a far darker side to this key African ally, while exposing the cynicism at the heart of American policy in Africa's Great Lakes region. This gripping, iconoclastic, angry book raises a host of uncomfortable questions."
- Michela Wrong, author of Borderlines and It's Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower

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