Somalia and Failed Transitional Federal Government: Is an Islamic Government a Solution to Piracy Problems in the Gulf of Aden?

Abstract

Somalia is widely regarded as the epitome of a failed state. Even though the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), a contraption of Somalia’s neighbours and other international actors, has been the main entry for Western engagement with the Somali people, the TFG remains an incapable actor in relation to the destitution encountered by Somalis on a daily basis. State failure in Somalia may, to an important extent, be attributed to the fluctuant forces of (political) power the country has witnessed since pre-colonial times. The egalitarian anarchy, used to describe the clan-based social arrangements, which to a certain extent has transcended into the modern era, can explain the highly complex, factionalised and violent milieu of contemporary Somalia. However, the overwhelming majority of Muslims in Somalia and the continuing disagreements between the TFG and al-Shabaab – the main internal opposing faction to the TFG – have predominantly concentrated on the different role and function Islam ought to play in any new political arrangement. Somalia’s dismal state of affairs spans several decades, but the recent surge in pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden has contributed to the renewed attention to the region. Although the lack of political authority should not be regarded as the sole cause for the endemic phenomenon of piracy, history suggests that a strong authority can be successful in containing the problems caused to the shipping industry and, consequently, the global economic trade. This thesis will advance the idea that the Union of Islamic Courts in 2006 ensured level of economic revival, widespread rule of law, and, consequently, a sharp decline in pirate attacks.