Menkhaus: A Somalia Case Study

Great Essays
Somalia is consistently seen as a failed state, undeniably it could be argued that it is the classic case as Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). As Messner (2013) argues, “it is also indubitable that the plan to build and sustain a modern state, with internal and external sovereignty as its defining characteristics has failed in Somalia.”
However, Robert W. Cox (2209) adds, “many works in political science dealing with Somalia are written from a ‘problem-solving perspective’ rather than analytical or critical.”
The objective in mind is of course to try to find a viable means of changing the situation in Somalia, sometimes including its substantial Diaspora communities, but the majority of works with this ambition
…show more content…
“(2) Criminal elements, particularly in smaller groups, have had an interest and a profit motive in combating law and order.” Menkhaus tells us that this “group has similarly deteriorated in importance, mainly after 1999 as the Somali business community has withdrawn its support.” Then he pursues stating that, the latter have shifted away from the war economy of 1988-1992 era. This to participate in more ordinary business to which criminality and instability are “liabilities rather than assets.” And finally concludes, “(3) Risk-averse actors, including both political and business communities stand loose more from the establishment of a state than from its …show more content…
It is best not to measure up “state-formation in Somali with the formation of a unitary state but with a states-system” that differs over time with regard to “its norms and to the strategies of different players to gain influence, power and, ultimately supremacy, as well as the strategies of these players to avoid risk, exposure and threats to their survival.” The presence of many political units who retain control over the means of “organized violence and revenue of some kind and do not bow to any higher authority is the basis for this claim.” Such as in many historical regional sub-level systems, outside actors have been an important factor in Somalia as they have pursued to acquire influence and power as well as to prevent risks to their “interests and / or survival through the use of clients and sometimes direct military

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Chris Mccandless Essay

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Somalia had undergone severe hardships due to political instability and war. It was then, that a famine occurred in 1991-1992 and killed hundreds of thousands of people (Torrente and Weissman 3). By the 1990’s, instead of following a single government Somalia broke up into clan-based mechanisms generating further confusions and disorder (Torrente and Weissman 6). The situation of the famine can be directly connected to Chris McCandless. “A minus in contemporary African politics and food crisis in Africa,” (Krakauer 21)…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Modagadishu Research Paper

    • 1139 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Warlords took advantage of the chaos and took power in certain regions. Reports started to come in that people in Somalia were starving and the world decided to act by suppling the people with food, but the Warlords would end up taking the supplies that were meant for the…

    • 1139 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In his examination of security threats and violence in Africa, Mangala (2010:88) defines conflict as a ‘dispute or incompatibility between two or more opposing sides... It becomes a destructive force where the capacity to mediate incompatible interests breaks down and those interests are pursued through violence, either at a community, national, or international level’. One of the most prevalent forms of violent conflict in Africa affecting states and civilians are civil wars. Collier & Hoeffler (2004:565) define civil wars as ‘an internal conflict with at least 1,000 combat-related deaths per year’. The greed vs grievance debate examines factors within these categories which drive civil wars.…

    • 447 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Following the widespread civil war and famine that Somalia faced in the early 1900’s, Canadian Armed Forces played a significant role in helping repair and replenish the struggling country. Canada strengthened their role as peacekeeping nation by serving in the United Nations Operation in Somalia also referred to as UNOSOM. Through this mission, Canada displayed the qualities of being a loyal, persistent, and resourceful nation. Firstly, the scene in Somalia was one of danger and instability but the efforts Canada withstood to aid the country were remarkable “[Jamsheed Marker] said events in Somalia are testimony to the murderous length to which these international thugs are prepared to go in order to maintain their regimes of greed terror…

    • 353 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In Ken Menkhaus’ testimony to the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, he ascribes their growth to ‘jihadist rhetoric’ that capitalized on Somali nationalism and anti-Ethiopianism. They even won support from local Somalis who were opposed to the group’s extremist interpretations of Islam (Menkhaus, 2009). The TFG and Ethiopian forces were portrayed as the Christian West meddling in Somalia’s Islamic affairs and the diaspora believed that al Shabaab was justified as a defensive jihad. As such, al Shabaab’s tactics increasingly involved assassinations, bombings, improvised explosive devices, kidnappings, piracy, and suicide attacks which led to the United States designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in February of 2008. By 2008, Somalia was perceived as one of the most dangerous places in the…

    • 1217 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In October of 1993, eighteen soldiers were killed during combat in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. The US was there because they was assisting the United Nations during the Somalian civil war (3). After this tragic event, America did not want to intervene with any more civil wars to avoid “needlessly dying” (4). Belgium, the former colonizers of Rwanda, also did not offer much help to Rwanda during the genocide. Belgian peacekeepers were already stationed Rwanda but their small amount resulted in the death of a number of members.…

    • 1209 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After the fall of Somali President Siad Barre in 1991, there is a struggle between the two warlords, Mohamed Farah Aideed and Ali Mahdi Mohamed for control of the government, and a civil war occurs (Hogg, Annabel Lee.). With no government in control, the country plunges into chaos and ever since 1991, Somali has not had an effective government capable of performing its primary functions (Mohamud, Sahnun.). Along with the civil war there was a famine and limited food supplies, which has forced the entire country into starvation and an estimated 500,000 people die of starvation by 1992 (Operation Restore Hope.). In April 1992, the UN establishes the United Nations Operation in Somalia I (UNOSOM I) in order to provide humanitarian aid and restore peace, UNOSOM I was later replaced by the United Task force and after that UNOSOM II ("UNITED NATIONS OPERATION IN SOMALIA I.”).…

    • 1190 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The complexities of the paradox of implementing human rights norms was highlighted in the case of Burundi and their local civilian agency. Meghan Foster Lynch explores the citizens of Rumonge, Burundi and the actions they took to promote peace in their local communities after the fall of an authoritarian rule. Lynch presents to the reader that this peace was not “predetermined,” but a by-product of consistent work, and the “logic of self and community preservation” (Lynch, 82). She believes that this viewpoint as to how to remedy the conflicts following an authoritarian rule, leads to less violent conflict and should possibly be used in future situations instead of the accepted normative approaches. In this essay, I will explore how Meghan…

    • 1823 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Pursuit Of Wealth

    • 1281 Words
    • 5 Pages

    All the ugliness in the world can be attributed to people’s attachment to money, and the power it comes with. The unequal distribution of the world’s wealth and the drive to acquire all the world’s natural resources and money, plus the lust for power has led to a world of wars, paranoia, distrust and so forth. When we look at the things happening around the world today, we can see the effect of the relentless pursuit of wealth around the world. Corruption and embezzlement are the order of the day in most African countries. Not long ago, some African countries were under dictatorship who were in charge of the country’s economy.…

    • 1281 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In the midnight when everybody sleeps, there were mortars shooting from unknown places since I was living near the presidential palace. The situation remained the same during my six months of living in the city. Lately I went back to Mogadishu this year 2015; the condition was fully different from three years before. The peace and stability had sheltered the entire city.…

    • 154 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bates uses Ghana under the control of Kwame Nkrumah as an example of how overreaches of domesticized violence can be detrimental to economic development in regard to capital investments. Nkrumah wanted to expand industrial development in Ghana so he placed a monopoly on cocoa exports and high taxes onto cocoa farmers. Whenever opposition kingdoms formed against his efforts, Nkrumah used the government’s power to brand those kingdoms as a threat to the states future. As a result, those kingdoms crumbled from Nkrumah’s slander and the capital dwindled in Ghana which ultimately led to the impoverishment found in their society today. The other issue that plagues states today is when various communities form together and take up arms against one another, which ravishes the state with violence and hinders the national governments efforts in promoting economic development.…

    • 883 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Imperialism In Sudan

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages

    During the New Age of Imperialism, countries competed for power and wealth. An effective and legitimate way to prove so, under the judgement of 19th-20th century Europe, was to conquer other nations as colonies. It was also seen as powerful to guide “primitive, inferior” nations with European ideology, and embodies the phenomenon known as paternalism. Although this seemed idealistic, many of these nations demanded their own sovereignty and freedom. After these were rewarded, though, the repercussions of paternalistic imperialism in certain nations were grim and to this day continue to haunt and destroy nations.…

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Somaliland, a country both recognized and unrecognized. It is unrecognized by the world, but recognized by its own people. The country’s desperate fight for independence from Somalia not only initiated a bond between its people, making them closer to one another, but as well as connecting them more deeply with their country. When my parents eventually immigrated to America, unbeknownst to their knowledge, brought the same bond with them. This bond strongly connects our family, even extending to our relatives as well.…

    • 242 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Weak states were conquered by stronger states in a similar manner to the “survival of the fittest” in Europe’s period of consolidation. Countries that lacked administrative power were taken over by more powerful countries with substantial administrative power and strategy. According to Herbst, strong leaders in Europe knew that the only way that they could gain power and revenue in order to develop their country was to “expend the necessary political capital [in war] and undertake the coercion to gain more revenue” (Herbst 120). Furthermore, Joseph Smaldone from Georgetown University declared, “war was the principal instrument for the establishment and extension of political authority over subject people and foreign territory…” (Herbst 121).…

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Pre Colonial Africa

    • 1477 Words
    • 6 Pages

    INTRODUCTION. Pre colonial Africa was has varied has the continent itself. Different circumstances produced different societies with different tradition, customs, and politics these societies rose, fell and adapted as the centuries passed. Despite this variety, it is possible to divide political organisation amongst these communities into two broad categories states and stateless societies. Low population densities and the production of relatively small economic surpluses, hindered the formation of states in many parts of pre colonial Africa.…

    • 1477 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays

Related Topics