State and non-state regulation in African protracted crises: governance without government?

This article introduces a collection of papers that treat the question of governance in conditions of protracted crises in Subsahara Africa. Contrary to the widespread belief that African conflicts are little more than (undoubtedly complex and intractable) instances of anarchy and chaos, the authors present the reader with tangible evidence of the existence of non-state governance processes by constituencies attempting to manage the perils of long periods of violent strife and state failure. Their aim is to move beyond the purely empirical and to theorize and situate such phenomena of non-state governance in the broader context of political and social change that is currently reshaping Africa

Cash & Compassion: The Somali Diaspora's Role in Relief, Development & Peacebuilding

This research report, commissioned by UNDP Somalia, is based on work done in six diaspora hubs (Dubai, London, Minneapolis, Nairobi, Oslo, and Toronto) as well as in Somaliland, Puntland and South/Central Somalia. It examines the involvement of Somalis in the diaspora in dynamics in their country of origin, including collective and social remittances. Volume 1 contains the full report. Volume 2 contains the research guides, terms of reference and other annexes

Pragmatism over principle: US intervention and burden shifting in Somalia, 1992–1993

The conventional wisdom about the 1992 US intervention in Somalia is that it was a quintessentially humanitarian mission pushed by President George H. W. Bush. This article challenges that interpretation, drawing on newly declassified documents. The Somalia intervention, I argue, was largely a pragmatic response to concerns held by the US military. In late 1992, as the small UN mission in Somalia was collapsing, senior American generals worried about being drawn into the resulting vacuum. Hence they reluctantly recommended a robust US intervention, in the expectation that this would allow the UN to assemble a larger peacekeeping force that would take over within months. The intervention ultimately failed, but the military learned useful lessons from this experience on how to achieve smoother UN handoffs in the future and thus effectively shift longer-term stabilisation burdens to the international community.Open access publication was made possible by an EC Career Integration Grant

The Dualism of Contemporary Traditional Governance and the State

In many parts of the world, people live in “dual polities”: they are governed by the state and organize collective decision making within their ethnic community according to traditional rules. We examine the substantial body of works on the traditional–state dualism, focusing on the internal organization of traditional polities, their interaction with the state, and the political consequences of the dualism. We find the descriptions of the internal organization of traditional polities scattered and lacking comparative perspective. The literature on the interaction provides a good starting point for theorizing the strategic role of traditional leaders as intermediaries, but large potentials for inference remain underexploited. Studies on the consequences of “dual polities” for democracy, conflict, and development are promising in their explanatory endeavor, but they do not yet allow for robust conclusions. We therefore propose an institutionalist research agenda addressing the need for theory and for systematic data collection and explanatory approaches

If Mayors Ruled Somalia : Beyond the State-building Impasse

This Policy Note critically assesses the strengths and weaknesses of two competing school of thoughts on state-building and international aid in Somalia - the ”Marshall Plan” approach and the ”Social Contract” approach. It also proposes a third option - a transitional strategy that includes more support to municipalities as the source of the most practical, legitimate, and effective formal governance in Somalia

Peter D. Little - Somalia: Economy without a State

Menkhaus Ken. Peter D. Little - Somalia: Economy without a State. In: Annales d'Ethiopie. Volume 20, année 2004. pp. 278-281