The ITPCM International Commentary Vol. IX no. 34 ISSN. 2239-7949 in this issue: SOMALIASOMALIA CLAN AND STATE POLITICS International Training Programme for Conflict Management December 2013 1 ITPCM International Commentary December 2013 ISSN. 2239-7949 ITPCM International Commentary December 2013 ISSN. 2239-7949 The ITPCM International Commentary SOMALIA CLAN AND STATE POLITICS December 2013 ITPCM International Commentary December 2013 ISSN. 2239-7949 Table of Contents Foreword by Hussein Bulhan, p. 7 Clan and State Politics - Intro Discussing the Puntland by Michele Gonnelli, p. 8 federal state’s priorities and other issues Clans’ and clannism’s control Interview with Mohamed Said over weak political institutions Samantar, p. 53 by Stephen Musau, p. 13 A renewed role for the United What can current leaders in Nations in Somalia? somalia learn from their past by Andrea de Guttry, p. 57 history? by Abdullahi M. Odowa, p. 19 Offshore Somalia: piracy, naval missions Somali politics and power and private security runs over women and their by Francesca Sterzi, p. 61 environment by Fatima Jibrell, p. 25 Humanitarian actors’ struggle for access, impartiality and How did Somaliland emerge as engagement with armed non- a stable and peaceful polity? state actors by Gedamu Kalewongel Minale, p. 29 by Marco Rotelli, p. 69 Internal and external The EU cooperation challenges to peace for with Somalia: channels of Somaliland implementation by Adam Haji Ali Ahmed, p. 35 by Chiara Franco, p. 75 Does successful peacebuilding Is Mogadishu a viable “internal lead to successful protection alternative”? statebuilding? by Emanuela Parisciani, p. 81 by Abdifatah Ismael Tahir, p. 41 Hydrocarbon exploration in Puntland: who has the legal right to enter into agreements? by Issa Mohamud Farah, p. 47 About the ITPCM Next Trainings in Agenda, p. 88 ITPCM International Commentary December 2013 ISSN. 2239-7949 the ITPCM International Commentary Chief Director: Francesco Ceccarelli Scientific Director: Andrea de Guttry Editor in Chief: Michele Gonnelli Contributors to this issue: Adam Haji Ali Ahmed, Andrea de Guttry, Issa Mohamud Farah, Chiara Franco, Fatima Jibrell, Stephen Musau, Gedamu Kalewongel Minale, Abdullahi Mohammed Odowa, Emanuela Parisciani, Marco Rotelli, Mohamed Said Samantar, Francesca Sterzi, Abdifatah Ismael Tahir Proofreading & Copy Editing Thomas Taylor Di Pietro, Priya Mathews, Charlotte Reed, Helen Romito, Monica von Schlegell Art Director Michele Gonnelli ITPCM International Commentary December 2013 ISSN. 2239-7949 Thanks & Acknowledgements We are particularly grateful for the precious insights given by Mohamud Said Samantar (Puntland State University) at different stages of this project, our conversations were worth many readings. Special thanks go to Thomas Taylor Di Pietro, Priya Mathews, Charlotte Reed, Helen Romito, and Monica von Schlegell for their patience and kindness in performing the proofreading and copy editing services. Finally, we are irremediably indebted to all contributors, western and local, for having embarked on this project and shared their invaluable insights and knowledge, often despite strenuous conditions and communication difficulties. ITPCM International Commentary ITPCM International Commentary December 2013 ISSN. 2239-7949 Foreword I feel honoured to write the Foreword seldom hold prisoners - they quickly do better than earlier peacekeeping for this compilation of articles written kill their opponents, real or imagined. efforts. But one cannot find lasting by authors from diverse disciplines reassurance that Al-Shabaab has been and cultural backgrounds. I am also Different and highly costly inter- pushed out of Mogadishu or other ar- pleased to offer, in the conventionally ventions were attempted to restore eas so long as we remain fixated on limited space of a foreword, a few peace and order in Somalia since re-inventing the flawed state by su- comments on some key themes that the collapse of the military regime perficial change of its names (e.g. call- I think the articles collectively under- in 1991. The United Nations and the ing it federal when it is still unitary score. While presenting them in a list United States sent peacekeeping and and centralized) or by changing lead- I express myself in words which some then peace-enforcing forces includ- ers (be they colonels, religious lead- may consider too cynical, but with the ing UNOSOM 1, Operation Provide ers, or professors) when the system intention of constructively highlight- Relief, Operation Restore Hope, and of corruption, inequity, and injustice ing central problems concerning So- UNOSOM II. These interventions prevails. malia. mostly failing and ending with frus- tration, attention and energy shifted The authors of the articles presented The Somali crisis has many and com- to reconciliation conferences. These in this issue of the International Com- plex aspects that no author or work conferences too did not bring about mentary describe well these and many can fully discuss; therefore academ- the intended outcome. other problems causing torment and ics, true to their trade, cautiously take turmoil in Somalia. But they go fur- up an aspect or two of the Somali cri- These interventions did not work ther than that: they also propose sis to makes sense of it and propose a mainly because they relied on top- valuable lessons and solutions to the solution. down approach. The peacekeeping specific topics of their specialty and or peace-making missions used for- chosen topic. The cost of what we often call ‘the So- eign forces and well equipped armies mali Crisis’ is so massive in scope, so to enforce peace and order. The rec- Obviously, the kind of analyses and devastating to human life and mate- onciliation conferences held in plush proposed solutions presented here rial resources that it is nothing short hotels abroad focused on reconciling do not directly change the world, but of a catastrophe. However, its cease- warlords and politicians who were they educate and inform, seeding lessness and tedious repetition in the the primary impediment to peace in more ideas, better decisions, and serv- media for nearly a quarter of a cen- Somalia. The peacekeeping and rec- ing as prelude to constructive action. tury (1990-2013) no longer shocks or onciliation conferences also sought to That in itself is a significant contribu- outrages people. Somalis experience re-establish the flawed, unitary, and tion, the best one can hope for analy- it as an inescapable and irresolvable central state- inherited from colonial ses and recommendations. Therefore, existential curse. Americans and Eu- rule, presided over by corrupt elite, I congratulate the authors and the in- ropeans view it as a stubborn, banal, and proven unsuitable to Somalis by stitution that published their valuable but distant problem. Politicians who culture and experience. articles. want to project an image of effective and compassionate leadership find it Not equal amount of investment and as an inconvenient thorn that does not attention was given to bottom-up ap- go away. proach in Somalia (i.e. the former Prof. Hussein A. Bulhan Italian colony). Numerous studies Key political actors in Somali soci- and common sense affirm the efficacy ety comprised mostly of warlords of solving human problems by en- and ‘dollar-lords’ - some of them un- couraging and building on successes deservedly anointed as presidents, and inner resources of people while prime ministers, ministers, or gover- helping those unable to attain such nors - do not take the kind of cautious successes and garner their resources. and deliberate thought as academics Somaliland and Puntland has shown do. They act instinctively and quick- the value of bottom-up approach not ly in pursuit of personal power and only with regard to cost efficiency but wealth at the expense of their peo- also sustainability of solution. Dura- ple, including members of their clan ble solution comes when people par- whom they use as fodder and foot ticipate in the search for solution and soldiers in their ascent to power. They own the outcome. Perhaps the Afri- practice winner-takes-all strategy and can Union Mission (AMISOM) may CLAN AND STATE POLITICS IN SOMALIA Between local governance and federalism, international actors and pirates. The tree of life, long before being an for power and resource control. Eve- the 20th century, the Somali ‘nation’ American film released in 2011 from rybody was opposed to everybody has witnessed season after season director Terrence Malick, was a short in a looting practice and claim for of an alternation of elites in the rul- film shot in Somalia in 1987, by So- legitimacy over the remains of the ing role over it - a common destiny mali writer and director Abdulka- State itself, its capital town and the for many peoples similarly affected dir Ahmed Said. The title in Somali neighbouring area. The dismissal of by the scramble for Africa. It was the is Geedka nolosha. Confronted with a a tyranny does not compare with the French, British and Italian colonial harsh environment, the Somali pasto- chopping down of a symbolic tree, all rulers first, the Fascist state later, and ralist nomads – the great majority of the more if the bulwark of such state- the British protectorate and the Ital- the population - can only make their hood laid in oppression and death. ian trust territory after WWII. This life sustainable and self-sufficient by But, it is also true that the authori- foreign rule lasted until 1960, when a respecting the load capacity of their tarian rule, ever since the bloodless power transition to an indigenous oli- land. They constantly negotiate with coup, had managed to accommodate garchy occurred. A new elite started their ecosystem the level of exploit- competing clans’ claims and rivalries, to administer the freshly independent able stock on the basis of its regen- or at least to constrict them at a sub- polity, comprised of all its inherited erative capacity, a shifting threshold, merged level. Only the Ogaden war institutions, by mimicking structures vertically and horizontally, that re- (1977) unveiled political cleavages.