Somalia

Al-Shabaab’s Somali Safe Havens: A Springboard for Terror

The Africa Center’s Assistant Director Joshua Meservey argues in the Perspectives on Terrorism journal that Al-Shabaab’s September 2013 terror attack on the Westgate mall in Nairobi is not, as some have argued, a sign of the group’s desperation, but is instead evidence of its intact capabilities. Download the PDF

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 EU’s Misguided Move to Fight Pirates Onshore

By James Bridger

When confronting the crisis of Somali piracy, the preferred strategy of the international community has been to deploy naval vessels to protect vulnerable ships and deter and disrupt pirate attacks. The refrain that ‘the solution to piracy lies onshore’ is oft heard, but counter-piracy actors, including the US, the EU, and NATO, have been slow […]

Briefing and Discussion on Somali Piracy and Militancy with Stig Jarle Hansen

By Adrienne Chuck

The Michael S. Ansari Africa Center hosted a breakfast briefing and discussion today on Somali piracy and militancy with noted expert Stig Jarle Hansen, Head of the International Relations Program at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB) in Ås.

The Wrong Somalia Conference

By Peter Pham

British Prime Minister David Cameron is hosting a major international conference tomorrow involving senior representatives of some forty countries and multilateral organizations. The agenda that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has laid out for the conferees is ambitious, to say the least: the mandarins of Whitehall are giving themselves all of five hours to get […]

Al Qaeda’s Divisive Alliance

By Bronwyn Bruton

In a videotaped announcement released earlier this month by the Al Qaeda chief, Ayman al-Zawahri, the group officially endorsed the struggling rebel group Shabab, which has been fighting the Western-backed transitional government and African Union peacekeepers in Somalia since 2007.