Transnational Networks

Comments on the 2010 Failed States Index, Part 3 - Poor Sub-Saharan Africa

    In earlier comments, I considered Somalia's status as the world's most failed states and wondered how far Yemen would fall on the list before it resembled the former state. In this section, I will very briefly note some of the reasons for the poor governance in Sub-Saharan Africa, with some final comments on a recent paper that considers how "contagious" a failed state is.

    Sub-Saharan Africa remains a pretty terrible place in terms of governance, especially Central and East Africa. Consider the countries considered “Critical” that are all connected to one another through a chain of borders. Of course, these “borders” are often nothing more than lines on a map:

Somaliland votes in Presidential Elections

    For the first time since 2003, and after two years of delays and disputes over voter registration, Somalilanders will vote in the second Presidential election in their young country's history.

    Founded in 1991, after the Somali National Movement (SNM) defeated President Barre's troops in Northern Somalia, Somaliland remains unrecognized. While under international law their existence is relatively sound – British Somaliland, its former territory, joined together with Italian Somaliland (Puntland and southern Somalia) after five days as an independent country in its own right – the rest of the world still supports the Transitional Federal Government, which has little representation from Northern Somali clans. Siad Barre virtually ignored the north of Somalia for decades during his rule, which saw him invest most of his country's wealth into the then-capital Mogadishu. Then, when the SNM was founded in the late 1980s, Barre's troops brutally bombed and destroyed critical northern towns and slaughtered countless civilians. The SNM's victory was not intended to set Somaliland onto a path of independence, but popular pressure forced the SNM-led government to declare independence.

Comments on the 2010 Failed State Index, Part 1 - People Still Wonder Why Somalia is a Failed State

    This week, Foreign Policy magazine released the 2010 rankings for its Failed States Index , and there are several interesting changes to note. Of course, it should not come as a surprise to many that Somalia topped the list as most failed state, considering the country has no central government and is actually fragmented into three main pieces:

    Somaliland (self-declared Republic)

    Following years of war against President Barre's dictatorial and brutal regime, Somaliland (once British Somaliland) rescinded its act of union with Italian Somaliland (now Puntland and Southern Somalia) and declared itself independent. Though several relatively credible elections have been held, and peace largely achieved without foreign assistance through traditional institutions, the country remains totally unrecognized.

    Puntland (autonomous)

    Puntland's regional government can barely be called a government at all. Officially, it seeks a federation with other regions of Somalia. Unofficially, it is host to most of the Somalian pirates that threaten ships within a wide radius of the Somalian coastline. There are several theories why some people in this autonomous region have turned to piracy, including the unemployment in fishing industries resulting from illegal over-fishing of Somalia by foreign ships, but clearly the Puntland regional government could care less about the only real economic activity in its domain.

    Southern Somalia

   The area of the country most fought over, and for good reason (at least for a warlord): Barre invested almost all of the country's wealth in Mogadishu and other cities in Southern Somalia, making it the "best" place to plunder.