Atlantic Council Africa Center Director J. Peter Pham was a featured speaker at a panel discussion at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). The event, which focused on “Crisis in the Horn: How Can the US Support a More Stable and Secure Somalia?,” was moderated by Peter Lewis, associate professor and director of the African Studies Program at SAIS. The other speaker was Harun Maruf, senior editor and broadcaster at the Voice of America’s Somali Service.
The event was co-sponsored by the Alexander Hamilton Society, a nationwide independent, nonpartisan network of students, faculty, and foreign policy professionals that sponsors debates at universities on foreign affairs and national security issues, and SAIS’s Africa Association.
In his remarks, Pham emphasized the need to “dial back” engagement with Somalia’s ineffective and corrupt central government, while reallocating diplomatic and development resources to more legitimate local and regional authorities.