Give Mugabe Tenure

From the archives, Cullen Murphy's tongue-in-cheek article on getting dictators to step down:

Now Boston University is experimenting with a new approachthe Lloyd G. Balfour African Presidents in Residence Program. The idea, simply put, is that democratically elected African leaders might not be so prone to overstay their welcome as chief executives (or to keep meddling in local politics after leaving office) if they had a well-endowed university sinecure in the United States to look forward to.[...]

Harvard could very well get to Robert Mugabe before Boston University, and with a better offer. Harvard spent much of the 1990s secretly buying up parcels of land in Boston, through a front company, in order to facilitate the university's expansion in the twenty-first centurya subterfuge that sparked outrage among city leaders and community activists. In recent years Mugabe has made a specialty of land expropriation in the face of local opposition; what is more, he has done so in broad daylight. Harvard's new president, Lawrence Summers, might even learn a thing or two from Mugabe.