Abstract
For the newly formed Obama foreign policy team, the prospect in 2009 of inheriting an intractable mess in Somalia was both frustrating and deeply ironic. The frustration was that Somalia was only one of an overwhelming number of “wicked problems” the administration was bequeathed, all demanding immediate attention in an era of greatly reduced resources. The irony was that much of Obama’s foreign policy team—which includes many veterans from the Clinton administration—had already been through this before when, in late 1992, President George Bush Sr. authorized an unprecedented 30,000-man humanitarian intervention into war-torn Somalia just months before handing over power to Clinton. That Somalia intervention soon became a debacle for the Clinton administration. More than a few members of the Obama foreign policy team had had their fingers burned in Somalia in 1993 and must have had an unnerving sense of déjà vu as they were handed an even more nettlesome Somalia portfolio from another outgoing Bush administration 16 years later.
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Notes
William Mark Bellamy, “Making Better Sense of US Security Engagement in Africa,” in US Africa Policy beyond the Bush Years: Critical Challenges for the Obama Administration, ed. Jennifer Cooke and J. Stephen Morrison (Washington, DC: CSIS Press, 2009), 10.
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See, for instance, Nick Van der Walle, “US Policy towards Africa: The Bush Legacy and the Obama Administration,” African Affairs 109, no. 434 (2009): 1–21.
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Ken Menkhaus and Lou Ortmayer, “Somalia: Misread Crises and Missed Opportunities,” in Opportunities Missed, Opportunities Seized: Preventive Diplomacy in the Post-Cold War World, ed. Bruce Jentleson (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000), 223–225.
As quoted in Terrence Lyons and Ahmed Samatar, Somalia: State Collapse, Multilateral Intervention, and Strategies for Political Reconstruction (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1995), 28.
Ken Menkhaus and Lou Ortmayer, Key Decision in the Somali Intervention (Washington, DC: Georgetown University, Pew Case Studies, 1995).
As quoted in Combating Terrorism Center, AlQaeda’s (Mid)Adventures in the Horn of Africa (West Point CTC, 2007), 39.
Quoted in James Traub, “Surge Incapacity,” Foreign Policy, March 8, 2010, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/03/08/surge_incapacity. (Accessed on April 15, 2010).
See Theresa Whelan, “Africa’s Ungoverned Space—A. New Threat Paradigm,” paper delivered at the conference Rethinking the Future Nature of Competitions and Conflict, December 19, 2005, 2.
Robert Rotberg, “The Horn of Africa and Yemen: Diminishing the Threat of Terrorism,” in Battling Terrorism in the Horn of Africa, ed. Robert Rotberg, 1–22 (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2005).
Ken Menkhaus and Jacob Shapiro, “Non-State Actors and Failed States: Lessons from al-Qa’ida’s Experiences in the Horn of Africa,” in Ungoverned Spaces? Alternatives to State Authority in an Era of Softened Sovereignty, ed. Anne L. Clunan and Harold Trinkunas, 77–94 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2010).
International Crisis Group, “Counter-Terrorism in Somalia: Losing Hearts and Minds?” Africa Report no. 95 (Brussels/Nairobi: ICG, July 11, 2005).
Ken Menkhaus, “The Crisis in Somalia: Tragedy in Five Acts,” African Affairs 106 (Summer 2007): 357–390.
Mark Mazzetti, “Pentagon Sees Move in Somalia as Blueprint,” New York Times, January 13, 2007.
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Ken Menkhaus, “Dangerous Waters,” Survival 51, no. 1 (February– March 2009): 21–25.
U.S. Department of State, Office of the Spokesman, “Remarks by Secretary Clinton and Somali President Sharif,” August 6, 2009, http://www.america.gov/st/texttrans-english/2009/August/20090807102930eai fas0.9761774.html. (Accessed on April 15, 2010).
As quoted in Jeffrey Gettleman, “Somali Airport is Attacked with UN Team on Premises,” New York Times, September 9, 2010.
Robert McFadden and Scot Shane, “In Rescue of Captain, Navy Kills Three Pirates,” New York Times, April 12, 2009.
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Jeffrey Gettleman, “U.S. Delays Somalia Aid, Fearing It Is Feeding Terrorists,” New York Times, October 1, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/world/africa/02somalia.html. (Accessed on October 2, 2009).
Jeffrey Gettleman, “U.N. Criticizes U.S. Restrictions on Food Aid,” New York Times, February 17, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/world/africa/18somalia.html?_r=1&ref=jeffrey_gettleman.(Accessed on February 18, 2010).
It is impossible to know with accuracy the actual number of Somalis living in the United States or other countries, as a percentage are in the country illegally and do not present themselves in ways that facilitate enumeration. The figure of 150,000 is an estimate from Ken Menkhaus, “The Role and Impact of the Somali Diaspora in Peace-Building, Governance and Development,” in Africa’s Finances: The Role of Remittances, ed. Raj Bardouille, Muna Ndulo, and Margeret Grieco, 187–202 (Newcastle, UK: Oxford Scholars Publications, 2009).
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© 2011 Shahram Akbarzadeh
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Menkhaus, K. (2011). Somalia: Unwanted Legacy, Unhappy Options. In: Akbarzadeh, S. (eds) America’s Challenges in the Greater Middle East. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230119598_8
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