Concerned about terrorism as well as influence from Washington’s economic rivals, the Obama administration is renewing its efforts to support the Somali central government.
The Obama Administration’s Somali Pivot
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Somalia
South Sudan: Colonialism’s Dead Hand
A studied refusal to pay attention to South Sudan’s colonial history helped ignite the current crisis.
Somalia’s Failure: A Broken System or Lousy Leaders?
Somalia’s power-sharing system has failed.
Drone Victims Come Out of the Shadows
New films, reports, and media coverage are finally giving the American public a taste of the personal tragedies involved in the U.S. drone war.
Perpetual War: How Does the Global War on Terror Ever End?
This epilogue to Scahill’s bestselling book, Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield, is posted with the kind permission of its publisher, Nation Books. On January 21, 2013, Barack Obama was inaugurated for his second term as president of the United States. Just as he...
Al-Shabaab’s Savage Coming of Age (and How to Respond)
September 21 began like any other Saturday morning at the upscale Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya. Parents brought their excited youngsters to a children’s party; Kenyan elites patronized the gourmet restaurants; customers perused the merchandise in the mall’s...
Perilous Times for Kenya’s Somalis
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent fell victim to a wave of racially and religiously motivated hate crimes in the United States. In one of the most egregious cases, a Sikh man in Mesa, Arizona—who was neither Muslim nor...
No “Cake Walk” for Kenya in Somalia
When Kenya invaded Somalia in October 2011, it overturned a wise, 48-year-old policy of not involving itself in the armed conflicts of its neighbors—and Uganda, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia have all had times of conflict. In the best cases—as with South...
Nairobi Mall Attack Harkens Back to Electoral Violence Five Years Ago
Yesterday, the New York Times reported: Kenya is now entering an official three-day period of mourning to mark one of the most unsettling episodes in its recent history. The authorities here, in a country widely perceived as an oasis of peace and prosperity in a...
Reducing the Nairobi Attacks to a Hashtag
For the New York Times, Nicholas Kulish reported yesterday that a representative of al Shabaab tweeted: Kenyan forces who’ve just attempted a roof landing must know that they are jeopardizing the lives of all the hostages at #Westgate It’s beyond offensive to see an...