Empire as a solution to African poverty

Martin Wolf has reviewed an important book in today’s Financial Times. The Bottom Billion (Oxford University Press) argues in effect that a return to empire is needed to solve the problem of African poverty. Given that the author is Paul Collier, the director of the Study of African Economies at Oxford university, it should be taken seriously. Wolf also describes it as “splendid”. Although such arguments are fundamentally wrong they need to be challenged rather than sneered at.