Essay on United States Role in Somalia: Crucial to Development

The history of Somalia is a bloody one, filled with failed occupation, anarchy and civil war. Early Somalia established itself as a merchant state. Its key geographical location by the natural strait between the Horn of Africa and Yemen made it a focal point for trade.This essay will explore the history of internal struggles of the Somalilands and its many wars. It will investigate the colonial influences and conflicts between Somalia and its imperial occupiers and how these influences set the stage for future conflicts between the clans. Also, it will attempt to define the reasons why Somalia has become a failed state. The importance of United States foreign policies will be discussed as they have

Somalia, which is about the size of Texas, is a small country located in Eastern Africa next to the Indian Ocean. The United States, which is located on the Western Hemisphere, is bordered by Mexico and Canada and is between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

Conflicts within the nation of Somalia were sometimes planned as a means to an end. Whereby the United States Government supported a certain regime before they used their power to gain control of the situation and overthrow the tyrant. In other cases the use of national power was used such as the Islamic Courts Union to gain control over Somalia by implementing logical line of operations by providing the people their needs and services to gain their trust. In these situations it would be considered as an irregular warfare environment, because they were violent struggles

In the 1980’s and 1990’s violence in Somalia was getting worse as the days went by. This violence allowed warlords from the regions of Somalia and, in turn, go to war with one another. Images of the war showing starving children called for a response from the United States. The United States government sent supplies of food to the needy. However, these warlords got to the food trucks first. This resulted in President George H.W. Bush sending in troops to make sure that the supply lines could reach these desperate people in need of our help. As violence arose in Somalia United States citizens began to question whether or not it was our place to be there.

The deployment of United States Special Forces to Somalia to apprehend General Aidid was in the interest of the United States, if Nuechterlein's outline of national security interest was anything to go by. Somali had gone through difficult times and there was need to restore normalcy in this Horn of Africa's state. Restoring normalcy would have ensured that stability returned. Moreover, this would have ensured that the instability that had been realized here never spilled over into other Eastern Africa states. Had the United States Special Forces succeeded in apprehending General Aidid, a democratically elected government would have been instituted. This government would have prioritized democratic governance principles that conform to United States Army War College's "Favorable World Order category" (Nuechterlein, 1985). Yes, it was difficult to establish Jeffersonian democracy in Somalia bearing in mind that Somalia was a tribal nation; however, it was something worth giving a short. This could only be made possible by chopping off the head of Aidid's organization and ultimately taking Aidid out of the streets. Under the leadership of Aidid, the United Nations lost at least 24 soldiers of Pakistani origin many of whom were skinned (Bowden, 1997).

Somalia is a country situated in the ÒhornÓ of East Africa. It is bordered by the Gulf of Aden in the north, the Indian Ocean on the east and southeast, Kenya in the southwest, Ethiopia in the west, and Djibouti in the northwest. Somalia is about four times the size of the State of Minnesota, or slightly smaller than Texas. The capital is Mogadishu.

The International community such as the International Contact Group, the African Union and the United Nations to assist with U.S. foreign policies in achieving a peaceful, stable and comprehensive Somalia by eliminating terrorist threats, promote political stability and by supporting the organization of a central government and provide humanitarian assistance to the Somali people.

Affirmation of Somaliland is crucial because the encouragement of African action should not become the basis for inaction on the part of the United States. Jendayi Frazer, in her report on “Somaliland: Time for African Union Leadership,” states that the United States would recognize Somaliland if the others acted first. But Somaliland deserves recognition from a purely U.S.-centric national security perspective. The United States has always stood to protect the values that it was founded upon. Somaliland, in its entirety fits this impression. The Somaliland government and population embody a moderate voice in the Muslim world that rejects radical interpretations of Islam, including that espoused by the Council of Somali Islamic Courts currently in control. It would serve as a bulwark against the further expansion of radical ideologies in the Horn of Africa by offering a brilliant case of how

soldiers were killed. The U.S won the battle, but lost the war. Sure the U.S helped feed millions of people for a certain period of time, but overall the intervention turned out to be unsuccessful because once they left, starvation would soon hit Somalia once again. The Somali leader and the main instigator of starvation was not arrested, many innocent people were killed and when the U.S withdrew its troops, 18 soldiers' lives were lost in vain because their mission was not accomplished with their deaths.

“I don 't recognize my people anymore. I feel Somalia is lost. There is no Somalia. It is just a name (Abdi, 2016)”. Over the past 20 years Somalia as a country has been in turmoil and constant fighting. Today’s Somalia is still a harsh environment and the people are unforgiving as they too are trying to survive this oasis of violence. Considering Somalia in the news now we see after years of fighting and trying to support this country with food, water, and security it has progressed but not quickly. It has been a battle for any support to the country essentially taking two steps forward and one step back.

A task force of over 400 American special operations Soldiers flew into Somalia with orders to apprehend a warlord. Their mission was part of an international peacekeeping and humanitarian effort to stabilize the areas’ estimated 4.5 million starving population. The seventh attempt by these Soldiers, to capture this warlord, named Muhammed Farah Aydid, is the subject of this paper and known as the Battle of Mogadishu, occurring on October 3 - 4, 1993 (Encyclopedia Britannica, “Somalia Intervention”). The process of time, leadership resolution, and the changing battlefield have produced relevant and elaborative primary and secondary sources on this event. This paper examines a number of those sources, which include actors who were

Somalia has had a long and variegated history, marked by the rise and fall of Empire. Beginning in the late 19th century, the major Western imperial powers began to occupy and divide Somali territory, which is located in the Horn of Africa. The independent Republic of Somalia was formed in 1960 when the British and the Italians withdrew. But though the foreign powers had left, there remained an important reminder of the oppression of imperialism: the state. Beginning in the 7th century, the Somali tribes in the Horn of Africa had developed a complex oral legal system, which operated in a polycentric way: that is, it guaranteed the autonomy of the different Somali clans without any unifying state actor. Yet at the same time, this system, the Xeer, allowed room for conflict resolution and restitution. As a result, the culture of independence among the Somalis meant that one tribe would never be content to be ruled by another—the transitional government created strife as each tribe sought to use it as a means to control the others. In 1991, the Somalis took apart their government and began their modern period of semi-anarchy (with the remnants of the government being propped up by an international coalition desperate to impose their imperialistic mindset on the indigenous culture)—which was also marked with a resurgence of extra-governmental conflict resolution

The country’s worst violence outbreak in 10 years occurred in May 2006 as Islamist militia began to battle Somali warlords. The Islamist militia gained control of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, and went on to establish control in a majority of the south. The government attempted peace negotiations with the Islamic Courts Council, but was

Al-Shabaab as a terrorist group poses a significant threat in Somalia and in the global community. This paper will start by discussing the background. In this part the paper will show how the group has evolved from Al-Ittihad Al-Islam (AIAI) to the Islamic Court Union (ICU) and lastly to Al-Shabaab. Before discussing the group’s threat of national security, homeland and international, this paper will provide the conceptual meaning of key terminology, such as national security, homeland security, international security and globalization. It is important to understand these concepts before moving toward the main argument of the paper. After providing the framework for key concepts, the paper will discuss the group’s threat to Somalia in two areas, national security and homeland security. The paper will go further and identify the threats posed by the group on other nations’ homeland security and international security. We will use East African countries and the United States examples. The paper will provide evidence to support how globalization has shaped and fueled the threats from Al-Shabaab. It will then discuss the primary response from the United States and from African countries through AMISOM. The paper will provide the way forward and suggestions for the response of the international community to Al-Shabaab. In conclusion, we will try to alert the international community that although the group has been experience hard times in Somalia, it is unwise to

Since Yemen was already considered a poor country, the conflict between the Republic of Yemen Government and the Houthi rebels made matters worse. This led to Saudi Arabia contributing to controversial air strikes with the intention to help reinstate President Hadi’s position in the government, which in-turn is responsible for a great portion of civilian deaths. Having the US involved to peacefully put an end to the war would help save many civilian lives. By doing so, the crises in Yemen can be resolved adequately, and allow for the nation to prosper and grow once more. The Republic of Yemen Government and Houthi rebels must come to a ceasefire and truce, but this may only be reached by the assistance of the United