Africa

Lessons from Somalia

By J. Peter Pham

State Collapse, Insurgency, and Counterinsurgency In a monograph just published by the US Army War College, Africa Center Director J. Peter Pham argues that, after years as the world’s prime example of a failed state—one that gave rise to catastrophic humanitarian crises, a wave of maritime piracy, and Islamist militancy, including an al-Qaeda-linked insurgency—Somalia appears […]

IntelBrief: Barclays and the Somali Remittances Crisis

By Amy Calfas

Bottom Line Up Front Since 2011, Somalia has struggled to maintain one of its most important revenue streams—remittances from Somalis in the diaspora—as one Western bank after another cuts financial ties with the country. Inadequate regulatory regimes have made money transfer organizations vulnerable to exploitation by terrorist groups, and financial institutions doing business with Somalia […]

The Role of the US Air Force in the French Mission in Mali

By Gabe Starosta, Air Force Magazine

France’s intervention in Mali earlier this year—helping its former colony defend against Islamic extremists—didn’t get the media attention lavished on the overthrow of Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi or the crisis in Syria. But the Mali mission has so far proved successful

The Widening Gap Between France and Germany Over Defense

By Judy Dempsey, Strategic Europe

Steadfast Jazz takes place against the background of a widening gap between France and Germany over defense and security matters.

Poaching Peace and Security

By J. Peter Pham

Last week, former rebels loyal to the opposition Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO) announced that they were abandoning the twenty-one year old peace accord with the government of the southern African country after army troops overran a remote jungle base. The military action followed a spate of attacks on arms depots as well as civilian buses […]

IntelBrief: West African Piracy

By J. Peter Pham

Bottom Line Up Front Gulf of Guinea piracy remains a persistent, potential danger, with significance for commercial shipping and local economic development The lucrative take from theft of cargo, fuel oil, and crew and vessel ransom drive the motivation of the criminal networks Frequent, local ‘seaway robbery’ and sale of stolen crude on the oil […]

Kenya Working Group Hosts Raila Odinga

The Atlantic Council’s Africa Center hosted a meeting of the Kenya Working Group with the Right Honourable Raila Odinga, former prime minister of the Republic of Kenya. Africa Center Director J. Peter Pham welcomed participants and introduced the discussion, which was moderated by Joel Barkan, senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies […]

No Hollywood Ending to Piracy off Somalia

By J. Peter Pham

The Tom Hanks movie “Captain Phillips,” which opens Friday, will focus attention — again — on piracy off the coast of Somalia. The movie, in which (spoiler alert) the bad guys get caught, unfortunately might lead you to think that this is a problem that’s been solved. After all, since the April 2009 seizure of the cargo […]

Back to Somalia?

By J. Peter Pham

This past weekend, twenty years to the day after the conclusion of the Battle of Mogadishu, the deadly firefight dramatized in Black Hawk Down that left eighteen US military personnel dead and some six dozen others wounded (Pakistani and Malaysian units with the United Nations peacekeeping force also suffered casualties as they tried to relieve […]