Somalia Boilerplate for Learning Mechanics of War and Peace

The Raging Battle for Mogadishu (part #253?), and the U.S. role in supporting an ever-changing government-in-progress in Somalia reminds us yet again how incredibly dynamic war can be. Peace efforts have to evolve just as fast, or faster, than the efforts to split the population. Yet too often forces of war out-fundraise, out-maneuver, and out-pace peace forces.

Somalia serves as a canvass for understanding this dilemma, but far too often political analysts, security planners, and the media are too focused on the killing, leaving many of the local peace efforts starving for attention and support.

To clarify what's happening politically before getting into the peace, Somalia is roughly divided into three areas, Somaliland (largely peaceful with a strong functioning parliament), pro-government Somalia (the northeast state of Puntland and any parts of the south supporting local government representatives), and the battlefield (areas where the U.S., UN, and Ethiopia-backed government, sometimes backed and sometimes opposed by the Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamma (ASWJ) moderate vigilantes, fight against the radical Hezbul Islam militia or more well-funded and well-connected Shabab force which recently holds parts of the capitol, Mogadishu).

The top hope for Somalia beyond the government securing rule of law are a number of network women's organizations like Puntland's We Are Women Activists (WAWA), backed by Ministries of Women and Family Affairs, UNIFEM, and aid agencies. This is not because they are going to broker peace themselves, but because they are the networks linking all the traditional actors, Islamic moderates, and fledgling peacebuilding projects together. They are also vital because women in the Islamic radical areas may feel they do not have a role to play until they see that even in conservative areas across the country, women are leaders and vocal advocates. Moderate traditional and Islamic leaders do have centuries old conflict mitigation practices which should be at the heart of any new agreement, superceding bureaucratic priorities in this case. And the uniting factor is that these peace advocates rally around the family.

Islamic and traditional leaders have always been skeptical of formal government, considering it a means by which foreign nations create offices to extract resources or manipulate the population. In the early days of the Somali Civil War back in the 1990s, it was the traditional clan leaders who sought to take the country back from a Soviet-then-U.S.-backed dictator. But they splintered into warlord factions. And so the Islamic rebels today exist as a manifestation of people's distrust now of both Western-backed government and clanism.

The main reason the Shabab radical militia has been able to rally so much support, like the Islamic Courts Union before it, is because they are able to negate the other options -- state government is doing the work of the West, clan leaders are selfish warlords -- while putting forth the ultimate unifying message. Anyone, regardless of clan or region or ethnic or social minority group or economic status or connections to foreigners, is welcome to rally under an Islamic republic.

The fledgling government backed by the U.S., UN, and Ethiopia believes its best way to trump the Shabab rally cry is to basically kill off all the Shabab and simultaneously promote itself as a unity government.

But perhaps what would be the most important means of trumping the radical agenda and winning back broader support of the people is to be the government of women and family. Women are the key constituency, and until the new women's rights networks grew strong in the north they had very little say in any of the governments. Now is the time for the new Somali government to unify the country not on a mission of killing and isolating its enemies, but on building a home for all families, with women offered that key role that the Shabab will never give them.

Photo credit: Daniel J Gerstle (Elders in Elbuh, Sanag, Somalia)