Alex de Waal

Alex de Waal is a British writer and researcher on African issues. He is a fellow of the Global Equity Initiative at Harvard University, as well as program director at the Social Science Research Council in New York City. De Waal is also a co-director of Justice Africa, London.

De Waal received a D.Phil. in social anthropology at the University of Oxford for his thesis on the 1984-5 Darfur famine in Sudan. The next year he joined the Africa division of Human Rights Watch, only to resign in December 1992 in protest for HRW's support for the American military involvement in Somalia. He was the first chairman of the Mines Advisory Group at the beginning of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. From 1997 to 2001, he focused on avenues to peaceful resolution of the Second Sudanese Civil War. In 2001, he returned to his work on health in Africa, writing on the intersection of HIV/AIDS, poverty and drought. In 2004, he returned to his doctoral thesis topic of Darfur as the conflict there worsened. During 2005 and 2006, de Waal was seconded to the African Union mediation team for Darfur.

Published works

;Books
* "Famine that Kills : Darfur, Sudan", Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1989, ISBN 0-19-827749-0 (Revised edition, 2005, ISBN 0-19-518163-8)
* "War in Sudan: An Analysis of Conflict", London : Peace in Sudan Group, 1990
* "Evil days : thirty years of war and famine in Ethiopia", New York: Human Rights Watch, 1991, ISBN 1-56432-038-3
* "Facing Genocide: The Nuba of Sudan", London: African Rights, July 1995, ISBN 1 899 477 04 7
* "Famine crimes : politics & the disaster relief industry in Africa", London : African Rights & the International African Institute, 1997, ISBN 0-253-21158-1
* "Who fights? who cares?: war and humanitarian action in Africa", Editor, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2000, ISBN 0-86543-864-1
* "The Phoenix State: Civil Society and the Future of Sudan", Editor with A.H. Abdel Salam, 2001, ISBN 1-56902-143-0
* "Demilitarizing the mind: African agendas for peace and security", Editor, Trenton, NJ & Asmara, Eritrea : Africa World Press, 2002, ISBN 0-86543-988-5
* "Young Africa: realising the rights of children and youth", Editor with Nicolas Argenti, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2002, ISBN 0-86543-842-0
* "When peace comes: civil society and development in Sudan", Editor with Yoanes Ajawin, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2002, ISBN 1-56902-164-3
* "Islamism and its enemies in the Horn of Africa", Editor, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-253-21679-6
* "Darfur : a short history of a long war", With Julie Flint, New York : Zed Books, 2005, ISBN 1-84277-697-5
* "AIDS and power : Why there is no political crisis--yet", New York : Zed Books, 2006, ISBN 1-84277-707-6
* "War in Darfur and the search for peace" (edited), Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-674-02367-3

;Articles
* [http://www.bard.edu/hrp/resource_pdfs/hhrs.dewaal.pdf. Transcript of Seminar Eight - Discussion with Alex de Waal] , Bard College, 11 March 2000
* "'New Variant Famine': AIDS and Food Crisis in Southern Africa," The Lancet, 11 October 2003, [http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/cgsd/documents/de_waal_lancetarticle.pdf.]
* [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n15/waal01_.html "Counter-Insurgency on the Cheap"] , London Review of Books, 5 August 2004
* [http://conconflicts.ssrc.org/hornofafrica/ambiguous_genocide/ "Review of Gerard Prunier, "Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide", Hurst and Co."] , "The Times Literary Supplement", 8 August 2005
* [http://conconflicts.ssrc.org/hornofafrica/chasing_ghosts/ "Chasing Ghosts: Alex de Waal on the rise and fall of militant Islam in the Horn of Africa"] , London Review of Books, 18 August 2005
* [http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=6996 "Sudan's chance"] , "Prospect", August 2005
* [http://www.ushmm.org/conscience/analysis/details.php?content=2006-05-04-02&menupage=Sudan "Personal View on Darfur Peace Talks"] , United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 4 May 2006
* [http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-africa_democracy/darfur_peace_3709.jsp "Darfur’s fragile peace"] , opendemocracy.net, 5 July 2006
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1883560,00.html "The Book Was Closed Too Soon on Peace in Darfur] , The Guardian, 29 September 2006
* [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n23/waal01_.html "´I will not sign´"] , London Review of Books, 30 November 2006
* [http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070319/de_waal "The Wars of Sudan"] , The Nation, March 1, 2007
* [http://hir.harvard.edu/articles/1482/1/ "No Such Thing as Humanitarian Intervention"] , Harvard International Review, March 21, 2007
* [http://conconflicts.ssrc.org/hornofafrica/dewaal/ "Who are the Darfurians? Arab and African Identities, Violence and External Engagement"] , SSRC and GEI, Harvard, undated

External links

* [http://www.gov.harvard.edu/faculty/dewaal/ Harvard University biography] with CV
* [http://www.ssrc.org/staff/programdirectors/Waal/ SSRC biography]
* [http://www.justiceafrica.org/about-us/people/ Justice Africa]
* [http://www.ssrc.org/blog/category/darfur/ Making Sense of Darfur] Alex de Waal's blog on issues related to the Darfur crisis