Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

China's Interest In Africa: Conflict Or Stability?, Tristan X. Di Montenegro

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

China’s increase in economic and military force projection capability has grown substantially since the beginning of the twenty-first century. This rapid evolution, has in turn, triggered a rush for resources in Least Developed Countries, opened up new markets for Chinese-manufactured products, and has frequently been accompanied by an increased Chinese military presence in those nations in which it maintains an economic or industrial presence.

The PRC’s activities in Least Developed Countries, such as those in Africa, have had a direct impact on cultures, regional politics, economies, infrastructure creation, and the environment, yet the complexity of these dynamics has to date …

Escaping The Resource Curse: The Sources Of Institutional Quality In Botswana, Angela Gapa

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Botswana has recently garnered analytic attention as an anomaly of the “resource curse” phenomenon. Worldwide, countries whose economies are highly skewed towards a dependence on the export of non-renewable natural resources such as oil, diamonds and uranium, have been among the most troubled, authoritarian, poverty-stricken and conflict-prone; a phenomenon widely regarded as the “resource curse". The resource curse explains the varying fortunes of countries based on their resource wealth, with resource-rich countries faring much worse than their resource-poor counterparts. However, Botswana, with diamond exports accounting for 50percent of government revenues and 80percent of total exports, has achieved one of the …