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Policy Failure in Somalia

Carne Ross describes the failure of international policy in Somalia: International policy to stabilise Somalia has been a total failure. Yet, the same policies persist. In 2000, the “international community” set up what it thought was a legitimate government in Somalia, in an attempt to create a political consensus where none existed. Today, the so-called […]

Carne Ross describes the failure of international policy in Somalia:

International policy to stabilise Somalia has been a total failure. Yet, the same policies persist. In 2000, the “international community” set up what it thought was a legitimate government in Somalia, in an attempt to create a political consensus where none existed. Today, the so-called Transitional Federal Government (TFG) is neither transitional nor federal, nor even really a government, in that it offers no prospect of a transition to a more durable alternative, does not represent the rest of Somalia in a meaningful way, and, as a government, provides no services to its people, who did not elect it, in any case. The TFG is, in the words of a recent International Crisis Group report, “incompetent, corrupt and hobbled by weak leadership” and should be given a deadline to shape up, or be removed. Very few observers expect it to shape up: the current system pays the cabal who control it far too well.

Somalia’s most alarming and pressing problem is the current famine, but among its many other problems is the internationally-backed “government” whose legitimacy derives entirely from the support of international institutions and foreign governments. The TFG in Somalia is a propped-up governing authority without legitimacy or much of a claim to represent the people it theoretically governs. It was installed in Mogadishu after the Ethiopian invasion, and it has been fighting a desultory war simply to take control of the capital ever since. Ross cites this Congressional testimony (.PDF) by Dr. J. Peter Pham of the Atlantic Council to argue that U.S. policy has contributed to Somalia’s political dysfunction. Pham refers to “America’s hitherto policy of virtually unconditional—and, quite frankly, at times poorly-informed—support for the TFG” that the current administration is finally beginning to correct. Pham’s concluding remarks are worth quoting:

It is high time that the United States and Somalia’s other international partners look after their own legitimate interests and refocus their energies on minimizing and containing the harm caused by the TFG’s incompetence and corruption, while strengthening those functional parts of the former Somali state and integrating them into the framework for regional security and stability. To put it in terms that would resonate with the traditional pastoral Somali, the stakes are simply too high for us to continue betting on a camel that, if not quite dead, is certainly crippled.

Given the disintegration of Somalia and the failed backing of the TFG by foreign governments, one would think that U.S. and European governments would be wary of throwing support behind another weak, fledgling government that represents just a fraction of the country that it nominally rules and does not have effective control over most of the country’s territory or population. As we have seen in the last few months, they are not.

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