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The State Department needs to send some of its diplomats back to diplomat school.

Bill Easterly says aid workers need to pay more attention to democracy.

There was a coup in Niger yesterday. Yet not all coups are created equal. Democratically-elected Mamadou Tandja dissolved Parliament and the Supreme Court last year when they blocked his efforts to abolish term limits. While the subsequent Parliament ended term limits, its legitimacy is highly questionable as the opposition boycotted the election and voter turnout was just 5%. So while this is clearly a coup, is it a replacing a democratic or non-democratic government? Not clear. To add to the fun, not only is Niger one of the poorest countries in the world, Al Qadea and cocaine traffickers think it’s a great place as well.