Africa is at a pivotal moment of its development and depends heavily on nations' abilities to improve their governance, according to a social scientist who spoke to U.S. Africa Command staff members, June 29, 2010. Larry Diamond, author and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, discussed democracy and governance in Africa based on his latest book, "The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World." "We've seen very significant progress in some African countries in terms of maturations of civil society and better governance, but you can see the early signs or not so early signs of erosion, slippage, the return of easy and familiar practices," said Diamond. Retreat of Democracy Diamond stated that by late 2009, two of every five African states were described as meeting the requirements to be considered electoral democracies. The most liberal democracies, he said, are seen in countries such as Ghana, Mauritius, South Africa, Benin, Cape Verde, and Sao Tome and Principe. Globally, however, democracy is showing signs of being in retreat. According to the Freedom House, the last three years have been the first three consecutive years since the end of the cold war in which the number of countries declining in their levels of freedom significantly outpaced the number of countries that were improving their levels of freedom. Since the third wave of global democratic expansion began in 1974, 30 reversals of democracy have taken place, and nearly 2/3 of these reversals have been in the last decade. In Sub-Saharan Africa, Botswana and Mauritius are the only two countries that have been continuously democratic since their independence. Diamond attributed this stagnation in the expansion of democracy to a combination of several factors:A weak rule of law with extensive corruption and abuse of power Poor economic performance Ethnic and religious divisions Weak and ineffective political institutions Weak constraints on authoritarian leaders Oil and Democracy Oil and democracy don't mix, said Diamond, warning about the dangers of discovering oil too early in a nation's development trajectory. There are 23 countries which derive the majority of their export earnings (60 percent or more) from oil. Of those countries, none are considered electoral democracies. In particular, he expressed concern for Ghana's future development since discovering oil. "I think the greatest misfortune to Ghana's future is that they have discovered oil and in a really big way," said Diamond. He explained that large amounts of unearned income can deprive a country of incentives to earn its wealth and to be accountable to its people. Without very strong institutions of accountability to control the abuse of power and corruption, the discovery of oil is a threat to a nation's development and stability. "If you want sustainable development and organic foundations for security, you need good governance. Good governance means that public resources are going to be used to generate public goods, rather than private goods for rules, their families, and so on," Diamond added. In addition to the development of external institutions for government accountability, technology, such as mobile telephones, also contributes to the ability of civil society to monitor the government and elections and report wrong-doing. Networks of communications technology in Africa continues to grow as more Africans are blogging and using online forums to express opinions and engage with others. U.S. Africa Command's Role Diamond said that U.S. Africa Command has an important role in increasing African stability by helping to institutionalize professional military roles, mentalities, and capacities with a focus on security functions. "We have a huge agenda here of strengthening law enforcement capacities and strengthening coastal monitoring. I think that has to include ensuring that African states have the surface vessels and equipment and physical resources to perform these tasks. The training that you do in terms of raising their capacity is very important as well." He closed with positive remarks stating that progress can and has been made, but to sustain it will require a strong partnership with African nations that want to transform their countries. "If we don't keep up the pressure and sustain the engagement and sustain the partnership with African actors in the state and outside the state that really want to transform their countries, we really will have lost an opportunity to help Africa get on a truly different and more promising development trajectory."