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31. The European Union Training Mission in Somalia: Lessons Learnt for EU Security Sector Reform

Author:
Kseniya Oksamytna
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The European Union's mission to contribute to the training of the Somali Security Forces is the first military training mission launched by the EU. Deployed in April 2010, EUTM is nearing the end of its mandate: the training of the recruits will be completed by mid-July 2011. The mission was carried out in close coordination with the US, the African Union and the Ugandan army, and contributed to the EU's visibility in East Africa. However, given the overall feebleness of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and its inability to implement reform, the political effectiveness of the mission is doubtful. In the current context, EUTM should not be extended beyond its original mandate. The EU and other donors should instead support more functional local administrations and make future assistance to the TFG contingent upon tangible progress towards completing transitional tasks, a normalization of political life, and restoring the provision of public services.
Topic:
Security and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
Uganda, Africa, United States, Europe, Somalia, and East Africa

32. Disaster Risk Reduction – Fundamental to saving lives and reducing poverty

Author:
Debbie Hillier
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
East Africa is facing the worst food crisis of the 21st Century. Across Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya, over 12 million people are in dire need of food, clean water, basic sanitation and shelter. Suffering and death are already happening on a massive scale, and the situation will worsen over the coming months.
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, Humanitarian Aid, Food, and Famine
Political Geography:
Kenya, Africa, Ethiopia, and Somalia

33. China's Naval Policy off the Coast of Somalia: International Participation, the Preservation of Strategic Interests, or Security?

Author:
Dr. Jean-Paul Gagnon
Publication Date:
07-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development
Institution:
Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
Abstract:
This work will try to analyse China's naval policy off the Somali coast. The main contribution this work will attempt to make is to offer evidence concerning whether China's anti-pirating policies in the Gulf of Aden are more for the benefit of the international community, China's own strategic interest (a political economy outlook), or diplomatic growth. This work may be important as it could contribute to our understanding of China's current foreign policy to a slightly better degree. This will be attempted in the first instance by analysing the literature concerning China's humanitarian policies in Africa to establish a sense of the literature on this subject. In the second instance, we will examine the official foreign policy stance provided to the international community by the current administration in China. And finally, in the third instance, we will comparatively analyse if the policy statement is logically compatible with the extant literature. The analytical structure used to do so is Charmaz's (2006) grounded theory methodology. This study shows that China's foreign naval policy off the coast of Somalia is probably a mix of humanitarian, economic, and international diplomatic goals.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, and Political Economy
Political Geography:
China and Somalia

34. Humanitarian Intervention Comes of Age

Author:
Jon Western and Joshua S. Goldstein
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Foreign Affairs
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
No sooner had NATO launched its first air strike in Libya than the mission was thrown into controversy -- and with it, the more general notion of humanitarian intervention. Days after the UN Security Council authorized international forces to protect civilians and establish a no-fly zone, NATO seemed to go beyond its mandate as several of its members explicitly demanded that Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi step down. It soon became clear that the fighting would last longer than expected. Foreign policy realists and other critics likened the Libyan operation to the disastrous engagements of the early 1990s in Somalia, Rwanda, and Bosnia, arguing that humanitarian intervention is the wrong way to respond to intrastate violence and civil war, especially following the debacles in Afghanistan and Iraq. To some extent, widespread skepticism is understandable: past failures have been more newsworthy than successes, and foreign interventions inevitably face steep challenges. Yet such skepticism is unwarranted. Despite the early setbacks in Libya, NATO's success in protecting civilians and helping rebel forces remove a corrupt leader there has become more the rule of humanitarian intervention than the exception. As Libya and the international community prepare for the post-Qaddafi transition, it is important to examine the big picture of humanitarian intervention -- and the big picture is decidedly positive. Over the last 20 years, the international community has grown increasingly adept at using military force to stop or prevent mass atrocities. Humanitarian intervention has also benefited from the evolution of international norms about violence, especially the emergence of “the responsibility to protect,” which holds that the international community has a special set of responsibilities to protect civilians -- by force, if necessary -- from war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and genocide when national governments fail to do so. The doctrine has become integrated into a growing tool kit of conflict management strategies that includes today's more robust peacekeeping operations and increasingly effective international criminal justice mechanisms. Collectively, these strategies have helped foster an era of declining armed conflict, with wars occurring less frequently and producing far fewer civilian casualties than in previous periods.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, NATO, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Libya, Rwanda, and Somalia

35. Great Expectations: UN Peacekeeping, Civilian Protection, and the Use of Force

Author:
Alan Doss
Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:
The proliferation of intra-state conflicts in the post-Cold War era has led to a substantial increase in the number of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations, resulting in the creation of forty-eight peacekeeping missions since 1990. The unprecedented challenges faced in the 1990's – and in particular, the failures in Rwanda, Srebrenica, and Somalia – obliged the UN to revisit and rethink its peacekeeping strategies.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Security, Cold War, United Nations, and Peacekeeping
Political Geography:
Rwanda and Somalia

36. Piracy, Law of the Sea, and Use of Force: Developments off the Coast of Somalia

Author:
Tullio Treves
Publication Date:
04-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Attacks against ships off the coast of Somalia have brought piracy to the forefront of international attention, including that of the Security Council. SC Resolution 1816 of 2008 and others broaden the scope of the existing narrow international law rules on piracy, especially authorizing certain states to enter the Somali territorial waters in a manner consistent with action permitted on the high seas. SC resolutions are framed very cautiously and, in particular, note that they 'shall not be considered as establishing customary law'. They are adopted on the basis of the Somali Transitional Government's (TFG) authorization. Although such authorization seems unnecessary for resolutions adopted under Chapter VII, there are various reasons for this, among which to avoid discussions concerning the width of the Somali territorial sea. Seizing states are reluctant to exercise the powers on captured pirates granted by UNCLOS and SC resolutions. Their main concern is the human rights of the captured individuals. Agreements with Kenya by the USA, the UK, and the EC seek to ensure respect for the human rights of these individuals surrendered to Kenya for prosecution. Action against pirates in many cases involves the use of force. Practice shows that the navies involved limit such use to self-defence. Use of force against pirates off the coast of Somalia seems authorized as an exception to the exclusive rights of the flag state, with the limitation that it be reasonable and necessary and that the human rights of the persons involved are safeguarded.
Topic:
Security, Development, Government, and Human Rights
Political Geography:
Kenya, United States, United Kingdom, and Somalia

37. Somalia: The Trouble with Puntland

Publication Date:
08-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
The semi-autonomous north-eastern Somali region of Puntland, once touted as a success of the “building blocks” approach to reestablishing national stability and widely viewed as one of the most prosperous parts of Somalia, is experiencing a three-year rise in insecurity and political tension. At its roots are poor governance and a collapse of the intra-clan cohesion and pan-Darood solidarity that led to its creation in 1998. Intra-Darood friction has eroded the consensual style of politics that once underpinned a relative stability. The piracy problem is a dramatic symptom of deeper problems that, left untreated, could lead to Puntland's disintegration or overthrow by an underground militant Islamist movement. A solution to the security threat requires the Puntland government to institute reforms that would make it more transparent and inclusive of all clans living within the region.
Topic:
Security, Political Violence, and Fragile/Failed State
Political Geography:
Africa, Somalia, and Puntland

38. Pirates off the port side! Old problem - new topicality

Author:
Bjørn Møller
Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Piracy is an old problem which is now again attracting attention, mainly because of the surge of pirate attacks off the coasts of Somalia. Closer analysis shows the problem to be of quite modest proportions. The international naval protection of merchant shipping holds out some prospects of containing the problem, but it is most likely to solve itself. If international shipping opts for the route south of Africa, piracy will die out for a lack of targets. Maritime terrorism is, likewise, a problem of very limited proportions. It is often conflated with piracy, but there are significant differences between the two phenomena, the latter being undertaken for selfish reasons, the former for the sake of some higher cause. Whereas it is conceivable that maritime terrorists will gradually transform themselves into pirates, a transformation in the opposite direction is well Nigh inconceivable. Besides the analysis of these two phenomena, the overlap between them and certain naval strategies are also briefly touched upon.
Topic:
Security, Crime, International Law, and International Security
Political Geography:
Africa and Somalia

39. Vulnerability to Hunger: Improving Food Crisis Responses in Fragile States

Author:
Colin Andrews and Margarita Flores
Publication Date:
04-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
The paper examines the imperative for improved classification and analysis of food crises in different fragile contexts. Recognizing the persistence and protracted nature of food crises, the paper questions how prevention and response mechanisms could be improved to help decisionmakers better address the underlying causes of vulnerability and hunger. The paper draws on case study information to examine real life opportunities and constraints in applying a recently developed food security classification system, named the analytical frameworks at country level, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). Developed originally in Somalia, this classification framework is now being applied in a range of country contexts within and outside of Africa by national governments, UN agencies, donors and NGO organizations. The paper draws on early applications of the IPC to consider opportunities and constraints in the application of common classification systems, taking into account issues of institutional adaptation, methodologies, data and analysis.
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, and Non-Governmental Organization
Political Geography:
Africa and Somalia

40. Save the Arms Embargo

Author:
Peter Wallensteen
Publication Date:
01-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame
Abstract:
One of the first measures contemplated by the United Nations when confronting a new security crisis is to institute an arms embargo. Since the end of the Cold War – which liberated international action from the constraints of major power confrontation – there have been 27 such embargoes. In addition to these UN embargoes, there are also unilateral measures: The United States imposes its own arms sanctions on some countries (including Cuba), as does the European Union, sometimes directed at the same targets, notably Burma/Myanmar and Zimbabwe. Are they used at the right moment, and do they have the effects the UN would want? The list of failures is, indeed, long. The most striking is the arms embargo on Somalia, which has been in place since 1992 without any settlement in sight. Is it time to forget about this measure? Or is it time to save the embargo? If it is time to save the embargo, as this brief contends, what lessons can be drawn about the optimal use of embargoes, and under what conditions can they work?
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, and United Nations
Political Geography:
United States and Somalia