The Somalia Intervention: Can You Nation-Build in a Whirlwind

Abstract

Smith Hempstone, at the time U. S. Ambassador to Kenya, remarked when asked by the State Department to comment about getting involved in Somalia, If you liked Beruit, you'll love Mogadishu. The international intervention into Somalia has gone through three distinct and separate phases: UNOSOM, UNITAF and UNOSOM II. Each phase involved new and expanded objectives, escalating from the purely humanitarian to a manhunt for Somalia's most recalcitrant warlord, General Mohammed Farah Aidid. In each instance, the achievements fell short of the objectives, at least from the U.N. perspective. The intervention into Somalia has revealed a unique story of a homogeneous people historically torn by a culture that prides itself on its contentiousness. As such, it has defied, and will continue to do so, the efforts of the United States and its Islamic and African sister nations to help as well as the efforts of the United Nations to rebuild Somalia into a modern state.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1993
Accession Number
ADA280674

Entities

People

  • Joel M. Peterson

Organizations

  • Air War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • C4I
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Africa
  • Air Force
  • Civil War
  • Congress
  • Department Of State
  • Governments
  • Language
  • Management Personnel
  • Military Science
  • National Governments
  • Personnel Management
  • Political Systems
  • Task Forces
  • United Nations
  • United States
  • United States Government
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.