The thread
Zimbabwe...What the hell????... brings up a point. If events in Zimbabwe are not the concern of European states or of North America, whose might they be?
Certainly they are the concern of southern African states because of:
-Instability and uncertainty in inter-state relationships,
-Economic disruption in regional industry (especially agriculture) and commerce,
-Refugee issues including costs and resource allocation in neighboring states.
African states have thus far showed little initiative in addressing the problems that are apparent in Zimbabwe. Most of them are not well positioned to either provide adequate levels of relief or to initiate either non-violent pressure on the Mugabe regime, or to take direct action against it as in Uganda.
So who "gets their hands dirty?" Probably none of the southern African states, as they seem to be playing a waiting game to see who winds up winning after Mugabe's carcass is cold. Outside powers?
The outside power that has recently shown some geopolitical direction toward southern Africa is Brazil. There is an "association" of Portuguese speaking peoples that includes Brazil as well as Angola and Mozambique.
So, why do we think that might be? If the interests of Angola and Mozambique are impacted by events in Zimbabwe, how might that effect the interests of Brazil? Should/would Brazil become more invovled in matters such as those in Zimbabwe?
Economics? Politics? Ramifications? Problems? Potential consequences?
As there have been communities of Indian decent in some of these southern African states for a long time, does India have any potential interests in the southern African states and their affairs especially as those affect Indians?
Give it some thought. Geopolitics doesn't stop at NATO/Russian interests.