Today, North and South Korea will sit down for their first high level talks in two years. Next week, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will co-host a meeting in Vancouver with Canada’s foreign affairs minister – a meeting that’s being portrayed as a way to jump start new diplomatic efforts with North Korea. But international development professor Robert Huish says it’s a mistake for anyone to consider North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a diplomat – he’s a thug, and should be treated as such.

Rwanda is often touted as Africa’s greatest success story. The nation emerged from the ashes of a hideous genocide to become a paragon of economic growth and political stability. Pundits elsewhere in Africa have argued that Rwanda’s model ought to be replicated in other countries. Political scientist Nic Cheeseman, though, sees a fundamental flaw in this call.