Zimbabwe’s options

MM says on one level Zimbabwe’s turmoil boils down to Mugabe himself: he wants to stay in power and will do anything to keep that. (The situation in Zimbabwe has been so focused on this one man, but do others in his Zanu PF party also hold power?) I don’t think they hold power in the sense that they’re able to change the course of events dictated by Mugabe, but Mugabe does rely on his inner circle to do his petty work for him. Mugabe is a one-man show and has pretty much always been. (How likely do you think it is that African countries can put pressure on Mugabe?) Botswana’s words were unprecedented and remarkable, but in public African countries tend to stay away from condemning Zimbabwe. The African Union itself has pretty much now power over Mugabe, and there’s not much any external player that can do anything to influence Mugabe. (Is there resistance from African countries to non-African intervention?) On this issue, yes. Mugabe has been clever in trying to portray this as the pressure of only the West, but the West has no means of intervening anyway. The only thing that could change events is military intervention, and that would be disastrous.