Council Special Report Congo: Securing Peace, Sustaining Progress Teaching Notes By Anthony W. Gambino Independent Consultant for International Development and Foreign Policy; Former USAID Mission Director, Democratic Republic of the Congo; Author, Congo: Securing Peace, Sustaining Progress This Council Special Report, Congo: Securing Peace, Sustaining Progress, analyzes the present situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and proposes steps the United States can take to help. Nearly one-quarter the size of the United States, the Congo is home to important tropical forests, vast hydroelectric potential, and resources ranging from diamonds to zinc. It is also home to an ongoing humanitarian disaster. A war that began in 1998 caused widespread death and displacement. Though it officially ended in 2002, violence has continued, particularly in the eastern part of the country. The International Rescue Committee estimates that more than five million Congolese have died since 1998 including more than 500,000 per year since the official end of the war. The Council on Foreign Relations Academic Outreach Initiative is designed to connect educators and students at the college and graduate level with CFR s research and nonpartisan analysis. For more information, visit www.cfr.org/educators/.
Despite some positive developments, such as democratic elections in 2006 and an increase in foreign investment, the country continues to face severe security and development problems. The report details the country s social, economic, and security challenges, ranging from lawlessness and corruption to poverty and poor health. It recommends two priorities for U.S. policy: combating insecurity in the east and promoting sustainable development. To bolster security, the report urges the United States to ensure that the UN peacekeeping mission in the Congo has an appropriate mandate and sufficient personnel and resources to remain in place for the foreseeable future; at least through the planned 2011 elections. On development, the report makes a number of recommendations, including increased U.S. assistance for the elections, environmental protection, and health. This report is suitable for the following types of courses: U.S. foreign policy and international affairs International development Fragile states These teaching notes discuss questions and suggestions for further projects, including class debates, memoranda to the president, and formal analysis, which may be useful for students in any of the courses above. Discussion Questions Courses on U.S. Foreign Policy and International Affairs 1. What are the current aims of U.S. policy toward the Congo? What are the similarities and differences in the approaches of the Bush and Obama administrations? What changes, if any, should the Obama administration make to Bush administration policies? 2. What relative weight should be given to the various reasons for U.S. interest in the Congo? How important, for example, should the Congolese forest part of the second largest forest in the world be to the United States? How important is the responsibility to protect? What are the relative weights given to these justifications for U.S. involvement by current policymakers? What are the implications of the various choices that can be made? 3. What is present U.S. policy toward the United Nations Organization Mission in DR Congo (MONUC)? What should be the policy? Is the United States doing enough to support MONUC? What other steps, if any, should the United States take to strengthen MONUC?
4. What is the present balance in U.S. policy between acting unilaterally (i.e., solely with the permission of the Congolese government) and acting in concert with other interested states and institutions like the UN? What should be the balance? 5. What is the current U.S. policy towards the Congo in the context of other states in the region? In particular, how does the United States think about the Congo as compared to U.S. views on neighbors such as Angola, Uganda, and Rwanda? What is current U.S. policy towards this region of Central Africa? What should it be? Courses on International Development 1. What is an effective development strategy for the Congo? What should be the relative weights of the following sectors: environment, health, agriculture, economic growth, justice, and democracy promotion? 2. Is agricultural development critical to long-term sustainable development in the Congo? Why or why not? (Please refer to the World Bank s discussion of agriculture in its World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development.) 3. What is the role of Congolese civil society in the move toward democratic stability with economic growth? What should be the balance in U.S. policy concerning support to the Congolese government, Congolese civil society, international organizations, such as the UN (or UNICEF), and nongovernmental organizations (such as the International Rescue Committee or private contractors working on development projects)? 4. What are the present roles of the local and international private sector in the Congo? Does the Congolese state encourage private sector activity? What should U.S. policy be regarding the relationships between the Congolese state and private sector actors? Courses on Fragile States 1. How does the concept of country ownership as discussed in the Paris Declaration apply to the Congo? How should the concept apply? In particular, how should the United States think about country ownership in the context of extremely weak, corrupt governance in the Congo? 2. Congo has been called the worst place in the world for violence against women and girls. Reports have detailed horrific abuses, including rape and sexual mutilation. Have the U.S. and international responses to this been adequate? Should the concept of the responsibility to protect be applied in the Congo? If so, how?
3. What strategies should be used to build capacity within the Congolese government? Will traditional capacity building strategies work? If not, why? In particular, what strategies should be used to train the Congolese army? Why have present strategies failed? 4. Congo is seen as a particularly acute example of a country trapped in the resource curse. What does this mean? What are the differences between mining in the Katanga province and mining in the conflict-stricken provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri? What should the United States do to assist the Congo in ending this curse? In particular, what is the relationship between the U.S. commercial interest in promoting U.S. mining companies active in the Congo and the U.S. interest in working to promote long-term sustainable development in the Congo? Further Projects Debate Divide students into small teams and organize a debate on some of the issues raised in the report, for example: The international community must intervene more aggressively to protect civilians and put an end to rampant sexual violence in the eastern Congo under the principle of the responsibility to protect. The United States should focus a substantial portion of its development assistance on agriculture in the Congo. The United States should support a new, focused strategy to train the Congolese army. The United States should send troops to participate in MONUC, the UN peacekeeping operation in the Congo. Memorandum to the President Assign students to write a memorandum to the president on possible courses of action to respond to continuing abuses against civilians in eastern Congo. The memorandum should give an overview of the situation, discuss the pros and cons of each policy option, and recommend a course of action.
Op-eds Assign students to write an op-ed on some aspect of U.S. relations with the Congo. The assignments should be evaluated based on the importance of the topic selected and the clarity and brevity with which the author presents a specific point of view. Because the op-ed is short, it requires different writing skills from a conventional term paper the point must be made in the first or second paragraph, the writing style is usually more argumentative than in term papers, and must be simple even as the ideas advanced are sophisticated. These guidelines will help in focusing the argument which is best done before writing because more students choose arguments that are either too sprawling or esoteric for good op-eds. Supplementary Materials Collier, Paul. Wars, Guns, and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places, 2009 (The Bodley Head, Ltd.). Collier, Paul, The Bottom Billion, 2007 (Oxford University Press). Rice, Susan. Statement by Ambassador Susan E. Rice on Respect for International Humanitarian Law, United States Mission to the United Nations, January 29, 2009. Final Report of the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, United Nations, December 12, 2008. Reports of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. United Nations, May 2006 July 2008. World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development, World Bank, 2008. ENOUGH Project, http://www.enoughproject.org/conflict_areas/eastern_congo. Human Rights Watch, http://www.hrw.org/en/africa/democratic-republic-congo. International Crisis Group, http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=1174&l=1.