Beyond the bubble - 03/11/10

For two decades, chaos has engulfed the nation of Somalia. The United States government has been a key player in the rehabilitation effort in this nation, and recent government policies indicate that this trend will continue.

In a New York Times article published on March 5, it was reported that the U.S. government has been and will continue to provide military training for Somali forces. This effort has been made in an attempt to help the legitimate government reclaim the capital city of Mogadishu from the insurgent group, Al Shabab.

Though the United States was one of the few nations that pushed to establish both humanitarian and military aid agencies on the ground, they employed policies that were often detrimental to the Somali cause.

In December of 1992, when the first U.S. military humanitarian mission was cleared by the United Nations, the American forces landed in Somalia under the policy directive of providing aid for those in need.

In the months that followed, militia simply exited the territory that the American military officials had inhabited, and waited for the soldiers to depart. And depart they did. Following Oct. 3, 1993, a day now made famous by the movie “Black Hawk Down,” American policies toward the struggling nation changed drastically.

Since those days, the U.S. has continued to drift in and out of Somalia, utilizing policies of varying levels of effectiveness. In the latest move by the American government, however, it seems as though policies are finally focusing on the strategies that are aimed toward producing long-lasting results in the region.

With the shift to providing training for Somali military personnel, as well as the food aid of old, the development strategy is clearly one directed more heavily toward long-term improvement.

The New York Times article noted that the American government has “absorbed a Somali truth that eluded them for nearly 20 years: If Somalia is going to be stabilized, it is going to take Somalis.”

The Assistant Secretary of State for Africa said, “This is not an American offensive. There are limits to outside engagement, and there has to be an enormous amount of local buy-in for this work.”

In the last two decades in Somalia, the damage has been total. Though the United States has been at the forefront of the delivery of much aid, many of the government policies have been misguided and ineffective. The focus has been too heavily placed on short-term solutions, allowing the conflict to continue.

International humanitarian politics are an undeniably complicated game. Rules of sovereignty, neutrality and impartiality must all be heeded in order to comply with United Nations criteria concerning when a state has authority to intervene in the business of another.

As seen in the past with this conflict, however, the international community supports initiatives to end this conflict. The American government must utilize all available channels to help the Somali government come to a solution for their own nation. This must include a dual approach providing honest humanitarian assistance in the way of food and medical aid, and in structural support including military training and structural economic guidance.