Alex de Waal is a writer and activist on African issues. He is a fellow of the Global Equity Initiative, Harvard; Director of the Social Science Research Council program on AIDS and social transformation; and a director of Justice Africa in London. In his twenty-year career, he has studied the social, political and health dimensions of famine, war, genocide and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, especially in the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes. He has been at the forefront of mobilizing African and international responses to these problems. His books include, 'Famine that Kills: Darfur Sudan,' (1989, revised 2004), 'Famine Crimes: Politics and the Disaster Relief Industry in Africa,' (1997), 'Islamism and Its Enemies in the Horn of Africa,' (2004) and (with Julie Flint) 'Darfur: A Short History of a Long War' (Zed Books, 2005).

In this book, Alex de Waal does what few have done before him: he moves beyond the assumed polemic, separates ideologically infused doom-saying from the available empirical evidence and bases his conclusions on what we actually know about the impact of AIDS.

• Table of Contents 1. A Manageable Catastrophe2. Denial and How it is Overcome3. AIDS Activists: Reformers and Revolutionaries4. How African Democracies Withstand AIDS5. The Political Benefits of AIDS6. Power, Choices and Survival

Alex de Waal is a writer and activist on African issues. He is a fellow of the Global Equity Initiative, Harvard; Director of the Social Science Research Council program on AIDS and social transformation; and a director of Justice Africa in London. In his twenty-year career, he has studied the social, political and health dimensions of famine, war, genocide and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, especially in the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes. He has been at the forefront of mobilizing African and international responses to these problems. His books include, 'Famine that Kills: Darfur Sudan,' (1989, revised 2004), 'Famine Crimes: Politics and the Disaster Relief Industry in Africa,' (1997), 'Islamism and Its Enemies in the Horn of Africa,' (2004) and (with Julie Flint) 'Darfur: A Short History of a Long War' (Zed Books, 2005).

In this book, Alex de Waal does what few have done before him: he moves beyond the assumed polemic, separates ideologically infused doom-saying from the available empirical evidence and bases his conclusions on what we actually know about the impact of AIDS.

• Table of Contents 1. A Manageable Catastrophe2. Denial and How it is Overcome3. AIDS Activists: Reformers and Revolutionaries4. How African Democracies Withstand AIDS5. The Political Benefits of AIDS6. Power, Choices and Survival