The world turns to quiet diplomacy?
Apologies for the lack of posts this week, having a really tough work week! Finally some support for Thabo's quiet diplomacy policy with Zimbabwe. The Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG, a foreign affairs think tank, has stated in a report that:

Western sanctions had failed and attacks on President Robert Mugabe by London and Washington were counter-productive. Mediation by President Thabo Mbeki "offers the only realistic chance to escape a crisis that increasingly threatens to destabilise the region", said the ICG in a report. It said: "It is critical that all international actors close ranks behind the Mbeki mediation."

Will that happen? Probably not. But it is increasingly difficult to see what the Western powers can do about Zimbabwe, barring forced regime change, which is a very unlikely scenario.