The United States can start by easing some restrictions in their counterterrorism policy. The humanitarian relief agencies are not handing over the money to the militants willingly but are forced to. They are handing the money over to reach people desperately in need of basic necessities. The ultimate goal is to reach the people who desperately need international aid. In certain cases, there should be an evaluation of what is the best course of action between the two difficult options. Giving money to the militants and getting aid to the people or not negotiating with the militants and watch the people suffer. I feel the United States has to look at the lesser of two evils. Understandably, the United States is concerned of designated funds getting into the hands of militants to fund and execute operations, however aid needs to get to the people who are suffering. The United States can take initiative and get a direct line of communication between the government of Somalia and the militants to come up with a common goal to assist the people in the war ravaged nation. I believe this can set the stage for future diplomatic meetings between Somalia and the United States. There could even be an option with direct talks with Al-Shabaab if diplomacy makes its way to the table.
If the aid does not reach the people in time, suffering will increase and the death toll will mount. If Al-Shabaab continues to exploit the relief agencies, projects and future humanitarian relief efforts will be hindered or stopped all together. An option the United States may consider is set up liaison operations with the Somalia government and the Al-Shabaab leadership. This action can produce valuable intelligence as well as assist humanitarian agencie...
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... of available information separately from the source. After gathering the information needed to substantiate the paper, I checked the information and compared it to other pieces of information to validate the reference(s) position. This had to be done throughout the paper for the most accurate information possible.
During the course of this paper, I used the “What if” Analysis. The “What if’ Analysis assumes that an event has occurred with potential (positive or negative) impact and explains how it might come about. Shifts the focus from whether an event could happen/occur to how it may happen. From different points of view, I was able to see both positive and negative results if certain actions were taken. There is an infinite amount of “What ifs” to any scenario. Using the prospective from all parties involved, led to the best decision possible for the situation.
Throughout this paper I will examine three different ethical views and interpret the ways in which one would respond to the scenario at hand. The initial ethical view is composed of cultural relativism. Another view is Kantian ethics. The final view involves utilitarianism. When presenting these views, I will describe each ethical view, and also I will speak abouts how a person who abides by the given ethical view would respond to the situation.
Civil War is another shared similarity between both Somalia and the United States. In 1991, following the overthrow of the dictator, Siad Barre, Somalia descended into anarchy. With no government presence to maintain some type of order, clan-based warlords began competing with each other, thus beginning civil unjust. While northern parts of Somalia, as well as the self-declared “Republic of Somaliland,” have remained somewhat peaceful, internal fighting flares up with little to no warning. Since 1991, it is estimated that 350, 000 to 1,000,000 Somalia’s have died due to the lack...
As seen from Gettleman´s text, “But Awil is not a rebel. He is working for Somalia's government. The U.S. and other Western nations support the fragile Somali regime, which is battling an Islamic insurgency, as part of the counterterrorism strategy for the region.” As apparent, the United States has put a counterterrorism strategy into place, to help bring down the power that Somalia
Again, the United States entered the conflict failing to adhere to all the principals of jus ad bellum, espousing the principles of jus in bello, and inadequately upholding those of jus post bellum. The US entered the war an unjust nation, and left the conflict in a rather unjust manner. As a result, Somalia faces hardship over two decades later with no signs of a hasty recovery. Even worse, with the problem lingering and the international debt crisis, few countries are willing to intervene in Africa to cut out a solution. How long will the world let Somali people starve and whose job is it to intervene if America is unwilling?
moral decisions, we will be analyzing why this scenario poses a dilemma, possible actions that
In order to understand the full scope of genocide in Somalia and how it will affect other countries, we must understand their culture. This way you can determine if any outside assistance, such as the United States giving aid, would be accepted or unwanted. Cultural knowledge can also give outside countries insight to “how” and “when” relationships can` be established.
The terrorist threat posed to United States (U.S.) interests within the Horn of Africa (HOA) is represented by one terrorist organization in particular, al-Shabaab. Areas of concern towards key strategic interests for the U.S. consist of armed conflicts, violent extremism, global trade, and maritime security in which al-Shabaab possess an influential capacity to disrupt, which effects political, economic, and social stability throughout region. As countries within the HOA continue to gain strategic importance to U.S. interest and policy makers, al-Shabaab and the various entities they collaborate with affect the stability of the region and remain a prevalent threat.
Political violence is action taken to achieve political goals that may include armed revolution, civil strife, terrorism, war or other such activities that could result in injury, loss of property or loss of life. Political violence often occurs as a result of groups or individuals believing that the current political systems or anti-democratic leadership, often being dictatorial in nature, will not respond to their political ambitions or demands, nor accept their political objectives or recognize their grievances. Formally organized groups, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), businesses and collectives of individual citizens are non-state actors, that being that they are not locally, nationally or internationally recognized legitimate civilian or military authorities. The Cotonou Agreement of 2000 defines non-state actors as being those parties belonging to the private sector, economic and social partners and civil society in all its forms according to national characteristics. Historical observation shows that nation states with political institutions that are not capable of, or that are resistant to recognizing and addressing societies issues and grievances are more likely to see political violence manifest as a result of disparity amongst the population. This essay will examine why non-state political violence occurs including root and trigger causes by looking at the motivations that inspire groups and individuals to resort to non-conforming behaviors that manifest as occurrences of non-state political violence. Using terrorism and Islamic militancy on the one side, and human rights and basic freedoms on the other as examples, it will look at these two primary kinds of political violence that are most prevalent in the world ...
At that time in the early 1990’s the U.S. was the only superpower country left in the world. The Soviet Union collapsed after the Cold War and the left the U.S. at the top. With the U.S. being the only superpower left, it meant that they were the only ones who could try to keep peace between other countries and hopefully end violence in the world. At the time, Somalia was a complete disaster and still is to this day. They have no structural government and warlords rule parts of the country. The one warlord at the time, Mohamed Farrah Aidid, was stealing shipments of food from the U.S. to the starving citizens in the rest of Somalia. The U.S. did not like this, so they set up a plan to capture Aidid and his men in a building near the Bakaara Market. The U.S. just got done defeating Saddam Hussein’s army in the first Gulf War. Before the war, Hussein had one of the largest armies in the world. The U.S. defeated them in a couple of weeks and gave them a massive amount of confidence going into this raid to try to capture Aidid.
Laura Smith – Spark on www.cnn.com writes, “Half of the 258,000 Somalis who died in the famine were children younger than 5.” (Smith-Spark et al. May 02, 2013) Somalia was once considered to be one of the most prosperous countries in Africa, but now is considered as one of the worse. How did this horrible transition occur to such a prosperous country? This horrendous result is due to the famine, lack of resources, and lack of trade. Oxfam International states, “Famines result from a combination “triple failure” ("Famine in Somalia: causes and solutions"). This triple failure includes production, access, and response failures. Somalia has been the victim of a two-year drought. Oxfam International states, “particularly in the expectation of the next harvest being 50% of normal.” ("Famine in Somalia: causes and solutions") Because Somalia cannot feed its people, this issue creates malnutrition and affects all ages, especially the young. This is a massive problem in their economic system. The young die too early, therefore creating a gap in the age distribution, which can affect Somalia’s work force in the future. This could also make the economic system weaker. If the only people living in Somalia are old, then there will not be any work done. One reason that they die so young is because of the lack of food. The availability of the food is minimal. Oxfam International states, “The drought has killed off the pastoralists’ prime livestock assets (up to 90% animal mortality in some areas), slashing further their purchasing power.” ("Famine in Somalia: causes and solutions") Somalia ‘s access to its food is limited because the people of Somalia cannot feed their animals. The people of Somalia also cannot trade for food, because dead...
Somalia is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north, and the Indian Ocean to the east. With the longest coastline on the continent, its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains, and highlands. It is made up of the former British Protectorate of Somaliland and Italy’s former Trust Territory of Somalia. Somalia’s modern history began in the late 1800’s, when European powers began to trade and settle in the Somalia area. These events and the events that occurred during the 20th century helped shape the modern Somalia government and culture today.
There has been much written about the problems facing Somalia. Most sources point to three different areas of analysis. The most referenced source is the prevalence of clansmen-ship in Somalia. Second, many sources also describe how the lack of a central government has prevented the citizens from breaking out of their cycles of aggression. Lastly, sources also explain how interference from international actors have prevented development within the state.
The Somali were struggling and since there was no one to aid them with their struggle for a secure government, the United States and United Nations began aiding the Somali people. The U.S. and the U.N. sent out deliveries of necessities the Somali people need to live off of, but warlords attempted to cut off the deliveries for the people, which infuriated the U.N. and U.S., who began to fight back against the warlords, causing greater tension in the capital. Aideed, a warlord, shot down two Black Hawk Helicopters, leading to the death of eighteen U.S. soldiers and hundreds of Somali people. The fighting continued, leaving multitudes of deaths on both sides of the war. After years of endless fighting, the United Nations and United States tried to the best of their abilities to aid Somalia and its corrupt government, however in the end, they were unable to find a solution to assist
The contemporary Somali historian and students of history could find it hard to believe that Somalis lived, generation after generation, century after century, without authentic political organization or strong traditional government institutions uniting all Somali tribes into one political order. Even though that being the case, there still some level of collective tradition laws for coordination and to maintain inter and intra collective good and fair dispensation of justices. In essence, the only law of the land was the long kept traditional customs, virtues and values under “Xeer institution”. In the unlikely event of one committing crime, the injured party would ask the offending clan to administer “justice” by taking note from a similar incident in the past and thus a legal ruling would be executed judiciously.
In the past ten years the Afghan Government has been dealing with a number of issues that have caused problems for the country, problems such as illegal drug trade, terrorism and violence. But nowadays they are fighting a problem that has long existed between people, and quite recently has taken a whole new aspect to it. Ethnic conflict is the destructive factor that has caused problems between people for generations, often leading to fights, outbreak of violence and grudge between different ethnicities.