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Title Foreign aid and extremism in the Horn of Africa: Reflections on developments in Somalia
Full text http://vbn.aau.dk/da/publications/foreign-aid-and-extremism-in-the-horn-of-africa-reflections-on-developments-in-somalia(96c4d280-54ff-496c-b91f-b8bd4b460d0c).html
Date 2014
Author(s) Farah, Abdulkadir Osman
Abstract This paper discusses foreign aid complexities and understanding the war on terrorism. In the past decade the US strategically integrated foreign aid with the fight against extremism, particularly in war torn regions like the Horn of Africa. In analysing the Somali case the paper contends the 911 terror attacks inaugurated new form of foreign aid explicitly focusing on security. The 'statelessness' condition in Somalia intensified intermingling of foreign aid with terrorism combatting programs in the Horn of Africa. In addition the collapse of the Somali military regime in 1991 empowered non-state actors such as warlord militias and religious extremists. Such fragmented conflicting factions- most of them without clear national vision and project- have since received external aid. By instrumentally focusing and dealing with such divisive elements, donor countries aimed and hoped for potentially favoured winners to reconstitute the collapsed state. This did not happen. Instead the number of clan militias, extremists and not so helpful external actors- from neighbouring and distant countries- augmented. With the US dividing countries and societies into potential allies and opponents, armed militias claiming suspicious allegiance to the US gained momentum. In response extremists mobilized alternative partners and platforms. Consequently the declared war on terror had serious implications for the Horn of Africa. Foreign aid, external actors and extremism- the legacy of 911- made people in the region particularly the Somalis struggling in between strategic narrow minded external hegemony led by the US and powerful neighbouring countries and visionless internal extremism and warlordism. Such hawkish policy made Somalia a battlefield for external states confronting armed allusive and mobile religious and non-religious extremists. Such securitization approaches imposed terror and counter terror warfare on peaceful civil society efforts (Kaldor, 2013). In the Horn of Africa, Africans fight each other in proxy wars apparently sponsored by external actors. The approach therefore undermined civic constituents trying to re-establish normalcy for Somalis as well as for the people in the region.
Subject(s) Foreign aid; Development; Radicalization; Terrorism; state-building
Language eng
Publisher Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd.
Type of publication article
Source Farah, A O 2014, ' Foreign aid and extremism in the Horn of Africa: Reflections on developments in Somalia ' Africa Renaissance, vol 11, no. 2, pp. 37-56 .
Repository Aalborg - Aalborg University
Added to C-A: 2015-04-15;14:12:09