Destabilising Interventions in Somalia
This book is a critical reading of contemporary interventionism, exploring how interventions shape the course of conflicts and reconciliation processes in Somalia.
In a critical departure from the state-capacity consensus that has dominated the debate on terrorism and state failure, this book argues that conflict and sovereignty transformations in Somalia cannot be understood as the result of a gap in state-capacity, as multiple interventions have compromised the autonomy of the target state and society to act as sovereign.
Destabilising Interventions in Somalia focuses on the humanitarian intervention of the mid-1990s, the EthiopiaEritrean regional proxy war in the late 1990s and the Global War on Terror in the 2000s. Examining the politics and mechanisms of multiple interventions, this book shows how interveners complicate and amplify existing conflicts, how they reiterate the international dimension of the conflict itself, and how they orient the target state towards the outsourcing of sovereignty functions. Key to this process has been the violent and exclusionary nature of interventions grounded in the aspiration of transforming existing political orders.
Destabilising Interventions in Somalia will be of interest to students of African peace and conflict studies, international intervention and International Relations.
Debora V. Malito is Lecturer in International Relations at Xian Jiaotong- Liverpool University, Peoples Republic of China. She held research positions at the European University Institute and University of Cape Town, and her work intersect critical theory in International Relations and African security governance.
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Destabilising Interventions in Somalia
Sovereignty Transformations and Subversions
Debora Valentina Malito
Destabilising Interventions in Somalia
Sovereignty Transformations and Subversions
Debora Valentina Malito
First published 2020
by Routledge
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2020 Debora Valentina Malito
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ISBN: 978-0-8153-5842-8 (hbk)
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Contents
This book is a critical reading of contemporary interventions in Somalia, and the result of almost ten years of research started as a doctoral thesis at the University of Milan. Since then, what is now condensed in this book has emigrated with me across different universities and continents, being subject to multiple inspirations. I am indebted to the communities and universities (European University Institute, University of Cape Town, Xian Jiaotong Liverpool University) that have hosted me, giving me the opportunity to learn, and to shape my way to look at the discipline of International Relations. In particular, I am grateful to those that have unconditionally supported my choices and ideas across the years, and that will not be mentioned here.
I express my deepest gratitude towards all the people I have interviewed in Somaliland and Somalia. I am grateful to the librarians and staff in particular in Hargeisa, at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, Nagaad and Academy for Peace and Development for providing me with access to their facilities and archives. I am grateful to a number of people that at various stages of this projects development have provided support and advice: Alessandro Colombo, Monica Fagioli, Abdullahi Mohammed Odowa, Muhaydin Saed, Annette Seegers, and late professors Gian Paolo Calchi Novati and Lionel Cliffe. Comments received by the participants at different conferences (27th Annual Conference of the Italian Society of Political Science, University of Florence; 3rd Annual Conference of the International Association for Peace and Conflict Studies, Manchester University; the second Convegno di Studi Africani, University of Pavia; International Workshop on The legacies of Armed Conflicts, University of Pretoria) have provided important insights into this project.
I am grateful to the Department of International Relations at Xian Jiaotong Liverpool University for supporting me in the final stage of the writing, and all my colleagues for their advice. Criticisms and observations received by the anonymous reviewers have also significantly improved this book. I am grateful to Elizabeth Stone at Bourchier for editorial assistance, and to Leanne Hinves and Henry Strang at Routledge for their support and patience. This book elaborates on ideaa and data that have been previously published in International Peacekeeping and Third World Quarterly. I thank these journals the journals anonymous reviewers and editors as well for the extremely valuable comments which provided food for thought, and further guidance when developing this book.
Malito, D. V. (2017). Neutral in favour of whom? The UN intervention in Somalia and the Somaliland peace process. International Peacekeeping, 24(2), 280303. https://doi.org/10.1080/13533312.2016.1250626;
Malito, D. V. (2015). Building terror while fighting enemies: how the Global War on Terror deepened the crisis in Somalia. Third World Quarterly, 36(10), 121. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2015.1074037
