Zimbabwe:Section 3 - Analysis

摘要

Overview: Security Environment. Zimbabwe's security environment is as much a function of domestic instability as it is of the external factors that normally shape a national security strategy. Ignited by the expropriation of white-owned farms and subsequent devastation of the mainstay agricultural sector in 2000, Zimbabwe's economic crisis has evolved into a threat to domestic stability. As inflation and shortages of economic staples such as food, water, and oil have led to widespread emigration and unemployment, the Zimbabwean population has grown increasingly restive. However, President Robert Mugabe's grip on power has strengthened commensurate to increasing levels of public discontent. By strong-arming elections, as demonstrated in 2005, and maintaining the loyalty of the military, Mugabe was, until recently, able to fend off any political threat while simultaneously cracking down on the opposition - the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).