Intervention In Somalia Research Articles

The Media and Africa: The Portrayal of Africa in the New York Times (1955–1995)

Eighteen U.S. soldiers were killed and dozens were wounded in a fierce battle in Mogadishu, Somalia, on October 3–4, 1993. Their deaths were a direct outgrowth of the Clinton administration’s handling of a series of United Nations (UN)-sanctioned military interventions in Somalia, which are popularly referred to as Operation Restore Hope. With the Cable News Network (CNN) providing almost instantaneous transmission to audiences in the United States and abroad, the victorious Somali forces not only paraded a captured U.S. helicopter pilot, Corporal William Durant, through the streets of Mogadishu, but also dragged the naked corpse of a U.S. soldier past mobs of Somali citizens who vented their anger by spitting on, stoning, and kicking the body.

The Media and Africa: The Portrayal of Africa in the New York Times (1955–1995)

Eighteen U.S. soldiers were killed and dozens were wounded in a fierce battle in Mogadishu, Somalia, on October 3–4, 1993. Their deaths were a direct outgrowth of the Clinton administration’s handling of a series of United Nations (UN)-sanctioned military interventions in Somalia, which are popularly referred to as Operation Restore Hope. With the Cable News Network (CNN) providing almost instantaneous transmission to audiences in the United States and abroad, the victorious Somali forces not only paraded a captured U.S. helicopter pilot, Corporal William Durant, through the streets of Mogadishu, but also dragged the naked corpse of a U.S. soldier past mobs of Somali citizens who vented their anger by spitting on, stoning, and kicking the body.

Television News and American Intervention in Somalia: The Myth of a Media-Driven Foreign Policy

Journal Article Television News and American Intervention in Somalia: The Myth of a Media-Driven Foreign Policy Get access Jonathan Mermin Jonathan Mermin JONATHAN MERMIN is a lecturer in political science at Yale University. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Political Science Quarterly, Volume 112, Issue 3, Fall 1997, Pages 385–403, https://doi.org/10.2307/2657563 Published: 15 September 1997

The Lessons of Somalia for Eastern Zaire

become shorthand for the perils of humanitarian intervention. Like earlier slogans?no more Munichs, no more Vietnams?the catchphrase implies a set of lessons learned and perceived implications for future policy initiatives. The conventional wisdom is that U.S. intervention in Somalia failed because mission creep led U.S. forces to adopt a nation-building mandate, thereby miring the operation in local political disputes. The policy implications are clear: Washington should avoid inter vention whenever possible and restrict involvement to short

Humanitarian intervention in contemporary conflict: a reconceptualization

Preface. Part I: The Classical Debate: Forcible Self--Help by States to Protect Human Rights: . Introduction. 1. Humanitarianism, Human Rights and the International Community. 2. Forcible Self--Help in Defence of Human Rights: 1945--1990. Part II: Reconceptualization: Humanitarian Intervention in Contemporary Conflict: . Introduction. 3. Contexts. 4. Options. 5. Controversies. Part III: Cases: . 6. Humanitarian Intervention in Bosnia. 7. Humanitarian Intervention in Somalia. Conclusion. Epilogue: Framework Principles for Humanitarian Intervention. Appendix 1: United Nations Peacekeeping and Observer Missions Operating 1991--4. Appendix 2: Other Acronyms. References. Index.

Commentary: negotiating a new millennium? prospects for African conflict resolution

The disastrous US and UN interventions in Somalia provoked an equally unhappy failure to intervene in Rwanda. This, in turn, has now produced a reassessment of the role of the United Nations and the international community in the resolution of internal crises. A number of writers have turned to the insights of writing on conflict resolution to seek remedies for the inadequacies of development theory and international relations. Although this new interest has its own problems, not least because states tend to make little use of conflict analysis once crises ensue, it has sought strategies that do not depend on ‘quick fix’ military strikes. In the process, it has advanced an important debate about the need for local and national initiatives and institutions in resolving conflicts and about the issue of collective intervention for humanitarian purposes.

Sub‐Saharan Africa in us foreign policy: From marginalisation to domestication?

Abstract The article examines the factors that led, since the late 1980s, to Africa's marginalisation in US foreign policy agenda: the end of the Cold War, the continent's economic decline and the failure of military intervention in Somalia. Although in the short run, Washington will continue to be rather indifferent to Africa, three domestic factors may change United States’ perceptions of the continent. In the long run, the politicisation of the Afro‐American community, the increasing influence of non‐governmental organisations and an emerging debate on non‐military aspects of security, may upgrade Africa in the superpower's external priorities agenda.

Somalia: State Collapse, Multilateral Intervention, and Strategies for Political Reconstruction

The multilateral military intervention in Somalia was one of the international community's first major attempts to respond to a dangerous new challenge in the post-cold war erathe problem of state collapse and social disintegration. Catastrophes such as Somalia reach public attention as humanitarian emergencies, but the underlying causes are the disintegration of political institutions and the resulting chaos and insecurity. Given the challenges inherent in such political crises, can the international community respond effectively to encourage political reconciliation and the rehabilitation of governing institutions?This book suggests that the international community ignored clear warning signs in Somalia and missed several opportunities to use diplomacy to prevent state collapse. As a result, the destruction of the state became more complete and the difficulties in rebuilding a viable system more demanding. When the United States and the United Nations finally intervened militarily in 1992, they focused on the humanitarian aspects of the emergency, thereby limiting their ability to act on the core political and security dimensions.This book shows how lessons learned in Somalia will shape international responses in future cases. It details the deep- rooted social, political, and economic processes that led to the decomposition of the state in the early 1990s; analyzes the attempts by the international community to encourage political reconciliation; and offers guidelines for policymakers.

Humanitarian crises and U.S. foreign policy: Somalia and the CNN effect reconsidered

This article explores the relationship between foreign policy making and news media coverage. Specifically, we examine the CNN effect, understood here as elite decision makers’ loss of policy control to news media. The initial decisions concerning U.S. intervention in Somalia are examined and related to the nature and extent of media coverage devoted to the humanitarian crisis there. We find that in the case of Somalia, news coverage trends do not support the claim that news attention to Somalia led to the Bush administration's decision to intervene. On the basis of content analysis and interviews of officials in Washington and Africa, we argue that the decision to intervene was the result of diplomatic and bureaucratic operations, with news coverage coming in response to those decisions.

Sliding into war: The Somalia imbroglio and us army peace operations doctrine

The US‐led intervention in Somalia has become shrouded in controversy. Criticism has centred on two issues: the manner of the UNITAF intervention and the military escalation under UNOSOM II. This article argues that in spite of criticisms by NGOs such as African Rights, the UNITAF intervention was both warranted and effective. Focusing on the actions of the US Army, it then analyses the circumstances under which UNOSOM II was dragged into a war in Somalia in the summer of 1993. It concludes that this military escalation reflected the Army's flawed conception of peace operations which led it to believe that it could slide from consent‐based peacekeeping, to coercive peace‐enforcement and back again. A clearer distinction between peacekeeping and peace‐enforcement would have highlighted the operational risks, requirements and the irreversible nature of the shift from the former to the latter. However, US Army doctrine on this and other points has subsequently been recast in the light of the Somalia operatio...

Port Sudan: The Evolution of a Colonial City (review)

88 Book Reviews the collectivism of a UN organization with limited resources and the pivotal role of the powerful Western democracies with effective means for implementing UN decisions. This has clearly established a leadership role for the West. (p.117) Reading between these lines, one senses an identification of UN leadership with the West, and even with one person, and takes this as a necessarily desirable development. The problem, of course, is that there is no guarantee that such leadership will not be exercised in the pursuit of partisan interests. This immediately raises other questions. If the United Nations is inadequate for this task, what other option is available? If no other option is immediately available, how can one ensure that the United Nations discharges this task in a responsible manner? If the use of military force is required, how is this to be made operational in such a way that the intervening forces themselves do not commit abuses no less serious than those inflicted by governments? How does one harmonize military and civilian interventions? These are not idle questions; they have already surfaced in connection with the United Nations intervention in Somalia, for example . They are also questions to which it would be unfair to expect readymade answers. But they need to be raised, because there may be a large gap between enunciating a principle and its satisfactory implementation. On the whole, however, this is a thoughtful, well-written book which many will find excellent and stimulating reading on the daunting problem of displacement and on how the international community may deal with it. Eshetu Chole Princeton University Port Sudan: The Evolution of a Colonial City Kenneth J. Perkins Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1993. 264 pp. Kenneth J. Perkins's book on the history of Port Sudan is a timely contribution to the literature of the Red Sea region of eastern Sudan. The status of our knowledge of this region is scanty compared to that of many other areas of northern Sudan. This goes for the Beja communi- Book Reviews 89 ties living in the rural areas of the Red Sea Hills, as well as for the regional towns with their inhabitants of mixed occupational and ethnic backgrounds. Increased knowledge about Port Sudan stands out as being of particular importance. It has been a major market in the region, functioning as a force of capitalist penetration of the hinterland. As Sudan's major port, it has been of crucial importance to the capital, Khartoum, and the nation as a whole. It has also been a gateway eastward, into the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden areas and, hence, to the Indian Ocean. Perkins's book places Port Sudan within all these contexts, but the major focus is on the city itself—its founding, and its development. The story of Port Sudan starts in 1904, when it was founded by the British at Shaikh Barghuth, the burial place of a Muslim saint, and ends in the 1950s, when the administration of the city increasingly became the concern of the Sudanese themselves. The place of the new city was chosen because of the area's suitability as a harbor, but the book takes a broader view of the development of Port Sudan. In three chronologically ordered parts (1904-1918, 1919-1942, 1943-1953), the author deals with themes such as the creation of an orderly urban community, the supply of the city's basic needs, how it was administered and governed , and how its growth was managed. After the British decided that Suakin, the old urban center on the western shore of the Red Sea, was no longer a suitable harbor for the twentieth-century Sudan, the development of Port Sudan became a major concern for British colonial rule. Perkins shows how many of the developmental issues that faced the Port Sudan planners in the early days also remained important issues throughout the periods with which the book is concerned. Since the city was to be built on a new site, its establishment was believed to be undertaken without taking into account any preexisting society. Therefore, Port Sudan was modeled on the planners' notions of an ideal colonial city. But reality...

Food aid and international hunger crises: The United States in Somalia

International food aid has long been known to be motivated by domestic and foreign policy objectives as well as humanitarian concerns. The policy objectives sometimes complicate delivery of emergency food, and lead to situations that result in adverse effects on the economic and agricultural systems of recipient countries. Despite the long history and extensive documentation of such effects, they were observed to occur once again during the 1992 Somalia intervention. This intervention encountered many frequently described barriers to effective use of emergency food aid. It also set a new precedent; for the first time, troops were deployed to enforce the safe delivery of food. This action led to the creation of an army of occupation engaged in military conflict with the very people it had come to serve and, eventually, to further deterioration of the country's food economy. The Somalia intervention provided further evidence for the need to uncouple humanitarian food aid from other policy objectives, and to design and manage emergency and long-term food aid programs to maximize benefits, minimize adverse consequences, and strengthen local agricultural production and marketing systems.

The Intervention in Somalia: What Should Have Happened: An Interview with John Paul Lederach

The Intervention in Somalia: What Should Have Happened: An Interview with John Paul Lederach

The Last Days of the Bush Administration: Arms Reductions and Military Operations: I. Intervention in Somalia

The Last Days of the Bush Administration: Arms Reductions and Military Operations: I. Intervention in Somalia

Ethics and Politics: Cases and Comments

Contents. Acknowledgements. Introduction. Recommended Reading. Part One: THE ETHICS OF PROCESS. 1. Violence. Introduction. The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb. Alternatives to the Bomb. Bombing the Bunker in Baghdad. Intervention in Somalia. Why Attack Iraq? Interrogating Detainees. Recommended Reading. 2. Deception and Secrecy. Introduction. Disinformation for Qaddafi. The Iran-Contra Affair. George W. Bush on Iraqs Nuclear Weapons. A Standard of Candor. A Tale of Two Task Forces. Recommended Reading. 3. Privacy of Officials. Introduction. The Confirmation of Justice Thomas. The Investigation and Impeachment of President Clinton. Recommended Reading. 4. Manipulation. Introduction. Crafty Communications. Lyndon Johnson, Master Manipulator. The Texas Redistricting Caper. Statesman or Sap? Al Gore in Florida in the 2000 Election. Recommended Reading. 5. Official Disobedience. Introduction. The Odd Couple. Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. George Shultz and the Polygraph Test. George Shultz and the Iran-Contra Affair. Agent Rowley Blows the Whistle. The Space Shuttle Challenger. The Space Shuttle Columbia. Recommended Reading. Part Two: THE ETHICS OF POLICY. 6. Policy Analysis. Introduction. Saving the Tuolumne. The Risks of Asarco. The Calculator. Listening to the City: What Should Be Built at Ground Zero? Recommended Reading. 7. Distributive Justice. Introduction. Defunding Organ Transplants in Arizona. Rationing in Public: The Oregon Health Plan. Welfare Reform in Wisconsin. Death and Taxes. Recommended Reading. 8. Equal Opportunity. Introduction. Affirmative Action at AT&T. Affirmative Action at the Michigan Law School. The Vouchers that Made Milwaukee Famous. A Golfers Handicap? Recommended Reading. 9. Liberty and Morality. Introduction. Decriminalizing Marijuana for Medical Use. Tossing Dwarfs in Illinois. Making Marriage Gay. The Controversial Curriculum. Recommended Reading. 10. Liberty and Life. Introduction. Administering Abortion Policy. Abortion in South Dakota. Regulating Abortion Late in the Term. Federal Funding for Stem Cell Research. Ethics Without Borders? Clinical Trials of AZT. Recommended Reading.

Editor's Note

Previous articleNext article No AccessStudiesEditor's NoteChristopher FindlayChristopher Findlay Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 14Jul., 1985 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/austjchinaffa.14.2159026 Views: 1Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Journal History This article was published in The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs (1979-1995), which is continued by The China Journal (1995-present). Copyright Australian Journal of Chinese AffairsPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Bjorn C. Sorenson Peace Unkempt: How Ambiguities in Public International Law and International Humanitarian Law Contributed to the Failed U.N. Intervention in Somalia, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 2010).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1636377