Understanding America’s Congo Policy: From the 1960s to the 1980s to Now
Date
10 April 2024
Time
15:00-16:30
Location
Zoom webinar
Type of Event
Webinar
Organisation
Egmont Institute
The changing motivations and assumptions underlying U.S. policies towards the DRC have frequently been misinterpreted. Stephen R. Weissman provides a uniquely informed perspective on this issue based on his groundbreaking research on the CIA’s Congo interventions of the 1960s, his work as the U.S. Congress’s key staffer on Zaire from 1979-91, and his more recent leadership in a coalition of non-governmental organizations and experts attempting to influence U.S. policy towards the DRC.
Weissman’s latest book is From the Congo to Capitol Hill: A Coming-of-Age Memoir. It focuses on both his turbulent experience as a Professor in Mobutu’s Zaire during the early 1970s and as a congressional insider challenging U.S. policies throughout the 1980s. His previous books are American Foreign Policy in the Congo 1960-1964 and A Culture of Deference: Congress’s Failure of Leadership in Foreign Policy. A Political Scientist, Weissman has taught and researched at Fordham University, Stanford University, the University of Texas at Dallas and Howard University.