The Failure System - The Role of External Actors in the Somali State Collapse

The Failure System - The Role of External Actors in the Somali State Collapse
Author: Marcel Lossi
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 57
Release: 2011-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3656061726
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Bachelor Thesis from the year 2009 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Africa, grade: 1,3, Helmut Schmidt University - University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg (Internationale Politik), language: English, abstract: 1. Introduction Since the fall of the Barre regime in 1991, Somalia has been the most profound and outstanding example of state failure not only in Africa but the entire world. For almost 20 years Somalia has been lost in a vicious circle which the author of this paper calls "the failure system". It is a system of mutually reinforcing factors consisting of clan violence and a corresponding history of real or imagined marginalisation, the establishment of war economics, various jihads and last but not least the interference of a multitude of external actors. The question of this bachelor thesis is: What role did external actors take in the process of state failure in Somalia? My hypothesis is, that the Somali state collapse cannot be seen as a purely internal phenomenon but rather as a layered systemic process that has been influenced by external actors on a massive scale. The main purpose of this bachelor thesis is to outline the role of external actors in the Somali state collapse. Albeit the focus of this work is clearly the external dimension of this conflict, we shall not neglect the internal actors and factions in Somalia. Especially after the Ethiopian invasion of 2006 and the begin of the international anti-pirate mission at the Horn of Africa a whole pile of scientific literature has been written on external actors and their strategic motivations in Somalia. But usually these publications only focus on the external actors and their motivations without appropriately addressing internal dynamics. In order to bridge the gap of understanding between the layers of internal and external conflict dimensions, this work tries to create a holistic and systemic big picture view of the Somali state collapse by outlining historica

The Role Of External Actors in The Somali Civil War

The Role Of External Actors in The Somali Civil War
Author: Barbara Maingon
Publisher:
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2010
Genre: International relations
ISBN:
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Somalia has been torn by civil war for more than 2 decades now. Since the collapse of the state in 1991, no legitimate solution was found to end the war. Although the internal clan system is often seen as the cause of instability in Somalia, it is not the unique source of conflict nor has it been the main driving force of the war for more than 20 years. During the Cold War, solutions to clan divisions were tried by the communist regime of Siad Barre, but failed. Since the start of the war, the international community has tried to implement its solutions to the problem as well, but without success. In fact, the more the external actors have got involved in the crisis, the more violent it became. By looking at the different interventions conducted by the international actors in the conflict, it is possible to determine the role that external actors have played in the intensification and the prolongation of the crisis. The results of this study show that international actors in the conflict, by intervening and pressing already made-up solutions fitting their own interests, have exacerbated the divisions between the Somali people, and between the Somali society and the rest of the world, therefore encouraging violence and resentment. This research also demonstrates that the implementation of foreign solutions to settle the Somali conflict has neither been valid nor successful, and that a more comprehensive approach needs to be taken in order for the Somali people to establish a legitimate society for themselves.

Somalia - A Model for Collapsed State

Somalia - A Model for Collapsed State
Author: Madeleine Pfeiffer
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 25
Release: 2007-01-13
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3638595625
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Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict, Security, grade: 2,3, University of Potsdam (Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakultät ), course: State Failure, Crisis, and Conflict Management, language: English, abstract: Nation-states are more numerous than they were half a century ago. In 1919 there were fifty-nine nation-states. In 1950 that number climbed up to sixty-nine. A decade later, after much of Africa gained independence, the number of nation-states reached ninety. The constant increase of independences in Africa, Asia and the Oceanic territories in addition to the implosion of the Soviet Union, have brought the total number of nation states in 2002 up to 192. Given these explosive numbers, the indigenous fragility of many of the new states and the inherent navigational dangers of the post Cold War economic and political surroundings, the possibility of failure among some of these new nation-states remains ever present.1Because they can no longer provide positive political goods to their citizens, nationstates fail. The government respectively the nation-state itself becomes illegitimate. At the moment only a few of the worlds nationstates are categorized as failed or collapsed. In spite of that, several dozen are weak and walking at the edge of failure. The aftermath of 9/11 led to the assumption that failed states harbour nonstate actors like warlords and terrorists which makes it necessary to understand the drivers and dynamics of nation state failure for the war on terrorism. This paper is an attempt to analyze which factors have led to the crisis of state collapse in Somalia and why does state collapse continue to be the order of the day? The first part of the paper is supposed to give an overview of Rotberg’s classification of state failure and state collapse. It will provide some general definitions and presents the indicators of the above mentioned terms The second part examines the Somali situation of collapsed state mostly in a chronological order. In a conclusion at the end, the question of prolonged state collapse in Somalia will be summarized.

To what extent can state failure be explained by patterns of political behavior within developing states?

To what extent can state failure be explained by patterns of political behavior within developing states?
Author: Florian Meyer
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 16
Release: 2010-06-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3640638832
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Essay from the year 2010 in the subject Politics - Region: Africa, grade: 1, University of Birmingham (International Development Department), course: Development Politics, language: English, abstract: The analysis of state failure and state collapse has gained widespread academic interest over the last years and combines various academic disciplines related to the reasons of non-functioning states and the variables which lead to state failure. This essay will try to contribute to the actual debate by examining to what extent patterns of political behavior can be used to explain state failure within developing states and, more particular, state collapse in Somalia. Therefore, this essay will first discuss theoretical approaches trying to explain state failure and the differences between state failure and state collapse. I will argue that the complexity of state failure and state collapse leads to an ongoing debate about the nature and perception of these states which is often misleading. Whereas the dominant factors which cause state failure are often found in bad governance and bad leadership, other factors such as the role of external patterns of political behavior during colonial times as well as during the cold war fostered weak state structures and enabled African rulers to develop a different understanding of the state as a tool for personal ends that lead to a logic of self-destructive despotism prior to state collapse. In a second step the article examines the case of Somalia in further detail, trying to analyze causes of state collapse and the impact of political behavior that led to state failure within the Somali context. I will argue that on the one hand patterns of political behavior by foreign actors are one main cause of Somali state collapse. On the other hand, the rule of Siyaad Barre and his patterns of political behavior followed a logic of self-destructive despotism which contributed largely to the fact that Somalia collapsed in 1991, when Barre was ousted. Finally, I will draw a conclusion based on the presented analysis to what extent patterns of political behavior within development states can explain state failure.

Somalia: State Collapse and the Threat of Terrorism

Somalia: State Collapse and the Threat of Terrorism
Author: Ken Menkhaus
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 133
Release: 2013-11-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 1136050000
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This work explores Somalia's state collapse and the security threats posed by Somalia's prolonged crisis. Communities are reduced to lawlessness, and the interests of commercial elites have shifted towards rule of law, but not a revived central state. Terrorists have found Somalia inhospitable, using it mainly for short-term transshipment.

DIIS Report

DIIS Report
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2009
Genre:
ISBN:
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State Collapse and Post-conflict Development in Africa

State Collapse and Post-conflict Development in Africa
Author: Abdullah A. Mohamoud
Publisher: Purdue University Press
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781557534132
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Mohamoud's work considers the underlying causes for the breakdown of the state across both time and space. Time is considered across the triple history - the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial processes. Space is used in the sense of taking the whole of Somalia as a unit of analysis. This approach enables the discovery of different structural crises over a period of time and examines these cumulative effects on the current upheavals in Somalia. Among the approaches, State Collapse and Post-Conflict Development in Africa covers the constraints in the harsh material environment; the subsistence pastoral mode of existence; the colonial intervention and the subsequent division of the land into five parts; Cold War geopolitics; decades of armed struggles; and the post-colonial crisis of governance. Dr. Abdulla (Awil) Mohamoud runs SAHAN, an academic research and consultancy agency, which conducts policy oriented research and fact finding missions abroad, mainly in Africa, undertakes evaluation and monitoring activities, provides training and offers advisory services on integration and multi-cultural issues. He holds an MA degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and earned his PhD at the University of Amsterdam. Mohamoud has served regularly as an election observer in UN, EU, Council of Europe and OSCE missions to conflict and war-torn societies (to East-Timor, Kosovo, Nigeria, Serbia, and Zimbabwe).

The Somali Conflict

The Somali Conflict
Author: Mark Bradbury
Publisher: Oxfam Working Papers
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1994
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780855982713
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This paper aims at identifying practical ways in which NGOs might contribute to the peacemaking process in Somalia and Somaliland. It covers the Somali Civil War up to October 1993. The author believes that Somalia has become a testing ground for the UN, the U.S. and NGOs, a theatre in which many ideas pertinent to a possible future world order are being worked out. He believes the heart of the challenge is how humanitarian agencies learn to respond to the results of armed conflict in complex and protracted emergencies. A wide range of suggestions is offered to NGOs. They need to recognise that peacemaking is a long term process and should consider sponsoring research into the causes and impact of the Somali conflict. UN efforts have failed because they represented external intervention rather than a Somali initiative, so NGOs may need to get involved on a political level. They could assist by promoting "peacemaking" rather than "peace enforcement", for example, by advocating an enquiry into human rights abuses by UN personnel and by Somali warlords. Peacemaking needs to address the underlying causes of conflict- in Somalia land ownership and land use is a significant source of conflict and this is another area where NGOs could usefully focus resources. Finally, the author considers that peacemaking and development can usefully be seen as similar processes, both of which benefit from a participatory approach. Thus NGOs have an important role to play in promoting local initiatives.

Somalia at the Crossroads

Somalia at the Crossroads
Author: Abdulahi A. Osman
Publisher: Adonis & Abbey Publishers
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2007
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:
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Since the fall of the Siad Bare regime in Somalia in 1991 and the fratricidal war that it unleashed in its wake, Somalia has been without an effective central government. Instead, warlords and their armed bandits have been controlling different parts of the country, with the former British colony of northern Somaliland unilaterally proclaiming its independence. Developments in the country since the recent transitional government was set up in 2004 have, however, presented both opportunities and challenges for the country. While much has been reported about the prevailing situation in the country, there has been a paucity of research articulating the various perspectives and challenges in the efforts to reconstitute Somalia's failed state. This book hopes to contribute in filling this gap. Contributors to the volume examine the various issues that lie behind the current situation in Somalia, seeking answers to a number of crucial questions: Why did the Somali state fail? What role did external actors and the internal configurations of the Somalis' socio-political structure play in the state collapse? Did the various peace and reconciliation conferences really achieve anything? Should Somalia be reconstituted as one state or should more than one state be allowed to emerge from the ashes of the collapsed state? What is the way forward out of the current imbroglio in Somalia? ________________________________________________________ Dr Abdulahi A. Osman currently teaches comparative politics and African politics at the Department of International Affairs and African Studies Institute, at the University of Georgia, USA. His teaching and research interests include African politics, governance, regional and international studies, peace and conflict, internal security and wars, comparative governments in the Third World. He has published several book chapters and articles in scholarly journals, including African Renaissance and Journal of Ethno-Development. Issaka K. Souaré is a PhD candidate in the department of political science at the Université du Québec à Montréal (Canada). A Contributing Editor to the London-based review journal, African Renaissance, he is the author of numerous publications relating to Africa, including Africa in the United Nations System, 1945-2005 (London, 2006); Civil Wars and Coups d'État in West Africa (Lanham, 2006), and the novel, Samassi (London, 2004).

State and Societal Challenges in the Horn of Africa

State and Societal Challenges in the Horn of Africa
Author: Collectif
Publisher: Centro de Estudos Internacionais
Total Pages: 172
Release: 2017-08-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9898862475
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This book brings to fruition the research done during the CEA-ISCTE project ‘’Monitoring Conflicts in the Horn of Africa’’, reference PTDC/AFR/100460/2008. The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) provided funding for this project. The chapters are based on first-hand data collected through fieldwork in the region’s countries between 4 January 2010 and 3 June 2013. The project’s team members and consultants debated their final research findings in a one-day Conference at ISCTE-IUL on 29 April 2013. The following authors contributed to the project’s final publication: Alexandra M. Dias, Alexandre de Sousa Carvalho, Aleksi Ylönen, Ana Elisa Cascão, Elsa González Aimé, Manuel João Ramos, Patrick Ferras, Pedro Barge Cunha and Ricardo Real P. Sousa.