This very readable and well-written book presents a provocative yet coherent and persuasive argument that Africa's ongoing economic crisis is rooted in international factors that must be identified and corrected. It thus forms part of the emerging post–Washington Consensus literature on how sustained development in Africa can best be achieved, and provides a number of recommendations that give considerable food for thought regarding Africa's future.

David Leonard and Scott Straus place much of the blame for Africa's economic woes on the existence of “enclave” economies. They define these as geographically concentrated areas within countries that provide access to primary export products, in which the land or capital goods involved in production cannot be easily assigned to other profitable purposes, and where labor is a small part of the cost of production. These enclaves, the authors convincingly argue, distort economies and serve as an easy and tempting target of prey for rapacious governments. A chapter describes Africa's managerial deficit and proposes related reforms, while another suggests that international guarantees backed up by a multinational intervention force could support governments that are democratic in nature, thereby minimizing civil strife on the continent.

An alternative title for this volume could be The End of the Berg Era, as it critiques the notion that policy-oriented assistance based on conditionalities is the best approach for promoting economic growth on the continent. Instead, the book calls for a deal to be struck between the donor community and Africa. Donors would provide total debt forgiveness (similar to recommendations of Oxfam and Jubilee 2000) in return for a significant reduction in foreign aid (especially policy reform–oriented assistance) that, in the authors' view, has been largely a failure. In theory, this would free up resources for Africans to use, while getting donors out of the unsuccessful business of providing large amounts of aid—aid that creates a mentality of dependence.

The authors argue that such a massive reduction of foreign aid, with its attendant conditionalities, is necessary so that governments can be responsive to their people, rather than string pullers in Washington, London, or Paris. In a sense, then, this book can be considered as advocating the “mother of all trade not aid” prescriptions. Such an argument, of course, contradicts the mainstream Washington Consensus development orthodoxy.

A number of legitimate questions can be raised about the book. Its perspective is at variance with those who argue that Africans themselves bear significant responsibility for the failures of governance that many countries have experienced. In calling for the elimination of donor country incentives (and disincentives) regarding policy choices, Leonard and Straus may be letting African governments off too easily. Conservative critiques place the blame for Africa's woes at the feet of Africans themselves. This is, of course, arguable, but the rush to develop post–Washington Consensus approaches should not ignore the reality that African governments have not always made the best policy choices. In fact, they have made some horrific choices, and these decisions cannot be fully blamed on donor governments.

The authors critique the donor bias against African governments experimenting with developmental policies outside of the neo-liberal paradigm. This critique must be questioned, however, in light of previous such policy experiments by African governments that did not work. Relatedly, the authors concede (p. 34) that their recommendations would be nonstarters for some of the more retrograde and rapacious regimes on the continent. Such policies could also run the risk of leading to a further marginalization of Africa from the world economy.

The authors suggest that African leaders are not responsive to their people, due to externally imposed conditionalities. To an extent this may be true, but it should be noted that people have voted in and out an increasing number of governments on the continent since the advent of democracy in the early 1990s. Thus, an evolving connection between the elected and the electorate should not be discounted.

The emphasis in Chapter 3 on improving Africa's managerial corps may be important, but the chapter does not include a precedential argument putting the issue in context and justifying its inclusion. The book also does not explain how cutting aid and debt would lead to African leaders adopting policies to minimize dependence on enclaves. It could have usefully included some comparative discussion of the existence of relatively more successful enclave economies in other parts of the world, such as Chile, and explained why they have not had the same deleterious developmental effects as those stated here.

There is a curious absence of reference to the New Economic Partnership for African Development (NEPAD). This initiative is based on a premise similar to that of the book, that Africans should take a proactive stance in instituting good governance and policies designed to promote lasting economic growth. While NEPAD does not suggest doing away with foreign aid in order to qualify for debt forgiveness, it is sufficiently similar in philosophy to have warranted some integration into this book. NEPAD's extremely modest track record early on, furthermore, raises some alarm bells about the realism of the Leonard and Straus prescription for success.

The authors' recommendation for a multinational force prepared to intervene in support of governments respecting democratic rights is commendable, but fraught with practical definitional problems. What would have been the response of such a force, for example, regarding the civil conflict in Cote d'Ivoire, where a rebellion against a somewhat democratically elected government was based on serious and legitimate grievances regarding the marginalization of the country's northern, mainly Muslim, population? Its recommendation that European powers be a part of this force seems at variance with the premise of the book that Western countries should get out of the business of being the arbiters of African nations' fates.

Notwithstanding the issues raised above, Africa's Stalled Development is to be read for its innovative and serious analysis of Africa's economic woes, and for its recommendations. Leonard and Straus deserve recognition for taking a fresh look at Africa's seemingly intractable problems, and for suggesting solutions that are worthy of consideration and debate. Time will tell if the recommendations, in one form or another, can beat the odds and gain some traction in broader policy and academic circles.