Center for American Progress

Donate

Center for American Progress

Somalia: Too Big a Problem to Fail?
Article

Somalia: Too Big a Problem to Fail?

Ken Menkhaus discusses that terrorism in Somalia could be a domestic problem for President Barack Obama, but he shouldn't treat it like one.

Foreign Policy

Media Contact

[email protected]

Government Affairs

[email protected]

As Hillary Clinton was holding talks with Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed today in Nairobi, Kenya — Mogadishu being far too dangerous for a U.S. secretary of state to visit — Somalia itself stood once again at a violent crossroads.

A loose alliance of hard-line Islamist groups, some with links to al Qaeda, controls most of the countryside and has pushed Somalia’s internationally backed, but institutionally feeble, Transitional Federal Government (TFG) out of all but a few enclaves in the capital, Mogadishu (the New York Times reported Thursday that Sheikh Sharif’s government controls "no more than a few city blocks").
 
Read more here.

The positions of American Progress, and our policy experts, are independent, and the findings and conclusions presented are those of American Progress alone. American Progress would like to acknowledge the many generous supporters who make our work possible.

Authors

Ken Menkhaus