History doesn't repeat, but it does enjoy a good remix. The Loony Left had its turn playing council-level foreign policy. Now the Loony Right is giving it a go with environmental policy. Same schoolyard energy, different decade, fresh set of headlines. One can only wonder what the right-wing papers will call them. The Sensible Pragmatists? Or will the satire wheel turn full circle?
BEAN TO BRAND, TARIFF TO TRAP by Lawson Akhigbe
Next in Abuja, four governments will do something that sounds, on paper, like a belated act of economic self-respect. Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon between them the source of roughly two-thirds of the cocoa that becomes the world's chocolate will sign the Abuja Declaration and stand up a Cocoa Value Addition Alliance, a coordinated attempt to stop shipping out raw beans and start capturing some of the value that currently accrues, almost entirely, to everyone else. Nigeria will additionally sign its own Cocoa Value Addition Accord, a domestic compact roping in governors, farmer groups, financiers and researchers into the project of turning bean into brand rather than bean into someone else's bar.
The Impact of the US Withdrawing from the Paris AccordsAntonio Graceffo Foreign Policy Journal
It appears that a US withdrawal from the Paris accords will have no significant impact on the climate. On June 1, 2017, press outlets around the world condemned US President Trump for withdrawing the US from the Paris climate accords. Climate change (and the necessity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions) is a sensitive topic, which …

