here - Center on International Cooperation - New York University

Somalia | 953.8M i s s i o n R e v i e w sSomaliaSomalia is the world’s prototypical failed state:fourteen successive internationally recognizedgovernments have been unable to impart stabilitysince the early 1990s. The country now presents theinternational community and the United Nationsa complex set of challenges: piracy off its coastlinethreatening international commercial routes; asecurity vacuum filled by domestic jihadist groupswith links to Al Qaida; an internal conflict that isfuelled in part by regional powers and finally one ofthe world’s worst humanitarian crisis.The humanitarian situation has followed adownward trajectory along with political and securityprospects. Nearly half the population relies onexternal assistance and more than 2 million are displacedwithin the country’s borders or in neighboringstates. Both the world’s largest internally displacedsettlement (roughly 500,000 people displaced rightoutside Mogadishu), and the world’s largest refugeecamp (in Dadaab, Kenya) are products of the Somalisecurity crisis.While political developments in early 2009presented an opportunity for a reduction in thelevel of violence and greater stability, the past twelvemonths have been marred by frequent attacks witha high number of civilian casualties, as well as slowprogress on the political front. The dimensions ofthe conflict are at once local – with the resurgenceof clan-based politics and warlordism – and global,with the international community’s rhetoric eagerto associate Somali Islamists with Al Qaida. Governmentcontrol remains confined to a few blocksin Mogadishu, and talks of reconciliation betweenvarious groups often does not translate into freedomfrom harm for civilians. To a large extent, the politicalnegotiations convened by the UN, which mostlytake place in foreign capitals in the region, havebeen delinked from events inside Somalia.BackgroundThe United Nations Political Office for Somalia(UNPOS) was established in April 1995, immediatelyfollowing the withdrawal of UNOSOM II– a UN peacekeeping operation that had benefitedfrom ambitious international support but had largelyfailed in its aim to promote national reconciliation.As thousands of UN troops and staff withdrew,