Somalia

On March 6, Warscapes magazine—a welcome newcomer to the international arts, politics, and literary scene edited by the passionate Bhakti Shringarpure—hosted “An Evening of Poetry from the Horn of Africa,” a night I won’t soon forget.

The Second Congo War, which gripped the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the turn of the new millennium (1998-2003), is sometimes also called the Great African War or Africa's World War.  The reason is simple, at the height of the hostilities, the armies of no less than eight nations were directly involved in combat, along with two dozen foreign-backed militias, ranging from independence-minded ethnic movements to the nihilistic death cult, the Lord's Resistance Army.  As one would expect from such a multi-faceted conflict, the reasons behind the war are both numerous and complex, but for some of the belligerents, the Great War of Africa allowed f

Somalia holds the unfortunate record of being the longest running failed state, going on twenty years without an established government. With the fall of President Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, the country has yet to stabilize and rebuild. This is in large part due to the international community’s lack of follow through on humanitarian assistance and statebuilding commitments to Somalia.

If you have been following international news recently, you are no doubt aware that the world has been an eventful place to say the least. These past few weeks alone saw the emergence of the world’s 193^rd country, Human Rights Watch’s call for the prosecution of George W.

I have asked recognized experts on Middle East and terrorism to comment on the current situation in Yemen, which I covered last week, and to share their views regarding the U.S. policy in that country and the nations surrounding it.

Dr. Ariel Cohen Cohen, a Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC:

Is the future of international relations being written in the waters off the coast of Somalia?

Last month a team of US Special Forces soldiers launched a helicopter-based attack on a convoy rumbling across southern Somalia. The action was quick, and a few minutes later the US troops were back aboard their choppers with the body of Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, who was the suspected mastermind of al-Qaeda’s 1998 attack against the US embassy in Nairobi, Kenya which left more than 200 dead, as well as a commander in Somalia’s al-Shabab Islamic movement.