In response to my post on Mugabe’s support from his neighbors, Dr. Tom Barnett responds:

Curzon wonders how Mugabe holds on, despite all the obvious damage he’s done to his nation’s economy.

First, there is the devious deal-making with outsiders. Then there is the fear of neighbors to get involved, as Curzon points out.

But the underlying strength, in my mind, is the constant Stalinist purging of opposition, which keeps them off balance and continuously generates news allies who believe, incorrectly, that they’re going to benefit—finally!—from this purge.

Stalin was a genius at this, Mao a clumsy paranoid (not that Stalin wasn’t too—an occupational hazard): every so often you simply take from some and reward others, while toppling enemies in the process. You keep your opposition fragmented and confused, and you capture just enough of the masses with the belief that—maybe, just maybe—it’ll work out for them next time.

It’s a neverending shell game.

Chavez is doing this now, replicating some of Mugabe’s early madness on farm seizures. Naturally, crop production is crashing as a result, amidst farcical claims that “we are building socialism and fighting capitalism!”

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