MONROVIA, Aug. 11 -- Six weeks apart, two crises have converged on the desk of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, each testing a different pillar of his authority. One is a sprawling narcotics investigation that has reached into his own security services and, uncomfortably, his own family. The other is a border standoff with Guinea that has simmered, flared, and simmered again since March without a final resolution. Neither crisis threatens to topple the administration on its own. Together, they are shaping how Liberians - and Liberia's neighbors - read the strength of a presidency now roughly halfway into its term.

By Rodney D. Sieh, rodney.sieh@frontpageafricaonline.com

The Narcotics Reckoning

The drug investigation has moved with unusua...