Scholar Calls for "Sustained Re-engagement" in Somalia
(Menkhaus speaks before Senate Foreign Relations panel) (620) By Aly Lakhaney Washington File Staff Writer Washington -- A scholar testifying before Congress has called for a "sustained re-engagement" in Somalia that focuses on quality rather than quantity of assistance. Speaking February 6 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Subcommittee on African Affairs, Dr. Ken Menkhaus said, "The U.S. and its international partners must take care not to throw money at self-declared regional or national authorities" in Somalia. Menkhaus, who is associate professor of political science at Davidson College in North Carolina, added that past strategies by international donors have reinforced "old, bad political habits in Somalia -- habits of competing to control the state solely to profiteer from diverted foreign assistance." (Somalia has been without a central government since 1991, when warring factions split it into various warlord fiefdoms, leading to prolonged civil strife and a famine that caused the United Nations to intervene in 1992.) Because much of the direct government assistance to Somalia had been misused, the professor suggested that the United States take an alternative approach and focus on engaging the business community, which, he noted, "has emerged as the most powerful political force in the country." In the past, Menkhaus said, "we did nothing for the private sector. It didn't even occur to us to work to build up a private sector. Now you go there [Somalia] and you see there are these very innovative entrepreneurial sectors of the economy that are very, very dynamic." Commenting further on the private sector approach, the professor said: "We've got to be sure we are swimming with the tide in Somalia, not against the tide, when it comes to foreign aid. Foreign assistance needs to facilitate trends that are already happening in Somalia, not try to impose something that's been thought up in the World Bank or a U.N. office." In addition, Menkhaus pointed out that "our robust domestic [U.S.] market is itself a tool," and "projects aimed at making the American market more accessible for key exports, at assisting Somali livestock exports, improving infrastructure and management at key ports, or at encouraging American partnerships with Somali entrepreneurs" are some of the possible engagements the United States could have with the business community in Somalia. Introducing the topic of international terrorism, Senator Russ Feingold, (Democrat of Wisconsin), chairman of the Subcommittee on African Affairs, said, "This hearing asks the question, What are the prospects and options for a coherent, long-term Somalia policy that aims to strengthen state capacity and curtail opportunities for terrorists and other international criminals within Somalia's borders?" Somalia already has a domestic terrorist group called al-Ittihad, which has suspected ties to al-Qaeda. Menkhaus said. He added that terrorist organizations and radical Islamic movements are attractive "because they are perceived [by Somalis] to be the only external interest in Somalia that's providing schools, that's providing loans to businessmen, that seems to be providing tangible results." In that respect, Menkhaus described Somali society as "remarkably pragmatic" and one that does not "embrace foreign ideologies [and radical Islamic agendas are viewed as foreign] unless they yield tangible benefits." Once the benefits are gone, he said, so is the support for the ideology. "Through creative use of the carrots as well as the sticks which we have at our disposal," Menkhaus said, "we can shape Somalis' cost-benefit calculations in ways that make it worth their while to cooperate with us in preventing terrorist activities in their country." Summing up, he emphasized that engaging the business community and developing a private sector in Somalia are a winning development combination that can best employ the partnerships among local governments, internationa donors, and the international private sector. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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