Nearly a million lives were lost in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994; afterward, the situation in Central Africa only worsened. Since 1996, a civil war in the Congo has killed another 5 million people in a vicious cycle of vengeance. With Dancing in the Glory of Monsters, human rights activist Jason Stearns writes a vivid chronicle of the carnage that helps illuminate a tragedy too enormous to comprehend. The Congo (formerly Zaire) is rich in diamonds, cobalt and copper, but the kleptomania of its leaders coupled with a bad colonial legacy left the country without viable institutions. Stearns isn't optimistic, but he hasn't given up hope. Insisting that the West, which has done so much harm, must play an important role, he advocates “smarter peacekeeping,” foreign aid contingent on political reform and responsible investment.
