The wildly successful viral video campaign to raise global awareness of a brutal Central Africa rebel leader is attracting criticism from Ugandans, some who said Friday that the 30-minute video misrepresents the complicated history of Africa’s longest-running conflict.

Other campaigns have used videos and social media to get their message out (consider the Enough Project's campaign against Congolese militias who fund their wars by controlling the trade in "Blood Minerals" such as coltan). But it takes more than having a message worth hearing...

A few nights ago, a video from advocacy group Invisible Children hit the web. Called Kony 2012, it is an attempt to tell the world the story of war criminal Joseph Kony, so that the viewer might feel the burn of injustice and work to put his reign of terror to an end.

The institutional efforts that have been made so far to integrate African nations politically and economically have so far failed to materialize any formal strength and lack any enforcement mechanism to uphold their rules... in the future, the regional economy would be organized on both voluntary (soft power) and coercive (Nigeria’s UN military commitments and South Africa’s financial prowess) bases.

There’s also a strong likelihood that Chinese interest in Africa’s infrastructure will wane in time. This is because China is not in Africa out of magnanimity, but rather to extract resources and boost its soft-power reach. Once those are secured, there will be less reason to invest in infrastructure.

Two decades of economic liberalization ushered in significant changes to India’s business landscape. One important change has been the development of competitive capabilities of Indian companies and the increase in business, professional, and personal exchanges with global businesses, workforces, and ideas. This development has significant implications on India’s soft power projection.

...Should America's hard power and divide-and-rule approach triumph, Africa may descend into one large theatre of war with many actors, chapters and a tragic ending. Should China's soft power and win-win economic approach triumph, this may end up becoming a truly African Century.