External actors in State Reconstruction: a case study of Somalia (1991-2015)
Abstract
This study examines state reconstruction in the context of external actors both state and nonstate
and Somali provides the case of study. The study makes use of Structural realism to
examine behavior of actors in the reconstruction process as well as acknowledging the
structure of world politics in explaining the dynamics of a state’s reconstruction process.
The study uses data from both primary and secondary sources with primary data mainly
generated from interviews with experts representing state officials and officials in Non-
Governmental Organizations as well as International organizations involved in Somalia
reconstruction process. The study establishes that there are both convergent and divergent
interests pursued by various external actors involved in the Somalia reconstruction. National
security and political interests are isolated as cross-cutting interests that motivate the direct
involvement of the state actors involved in Somalia such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, USA,
Eritrea, and by and large at the continental level, presently pursued by AMISOM while the
UN represents the wider global interest. However, besides the cross-cutting interests, state
actors have also fostered state-specific interests that have not always converged with the
interests of those other states involved in the reconstruction process. For instance, the US
interest on the war on terror in Somalia has not necessarily been the interest of the other
states involved in Somalia. The study further finds that the dynamics of the interests has
therefore been pivotal in guiding the process as the state actors jostle to influence the
reconstruction process in line with their interests. The place of internal domestic actors in
the reconstruction process comes in handy in this study in the determination of the direction
of the process. The study recommends for aggregation of the efforts by different actors
involved in the reconstruction process in order to have a common goal and approach rather
than each pursuing own interests at the expense of a successful reconstruction process. The
study also recommends a Somali-owned reconstruction process with full involvement of the
Somalis themselves as opposed to an externally led process if meaningful reconstruction is
to be realized.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
- Faculty of Arts [607]
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