Global Issues: Terrorism ~ Parallel Challenges in Yemen and Somalia

Chatham house have just released a paper on Yemen and Somalia: Terrorism, Shadow Networks and the Limitations of State-building, which asserts that: “The juxtaposition of Somalia and Yemen, and their common state of fragility, lies at the heart of emerging security concerns about combined regional risks”. The regions are riven with insurgencies, terrorism, economic hardship, and ineffective governments that are perceived to lack legitimacy. It is of obvious interest to the Global issues module on Terrorism, especially in that it explores the activities and nature of terrorist groups such as AQAP and al-Shabaab, and in particular what motivates them and the conditions in which they can thrive.

Here are the Summary points:
- Yemen and Somalia face parallel challenges: insurgencies, terrorism, economic hardship, and ineffective governments that are perceived to lack legitimacy.
- Western engagement in Yemen and Somalia is based on a state-building framework involving diplomacy, development and defence. Yet the priority attached to security-sector interventions undermines the balance of political and economic actions needed for this approach to succeed.
- There is a growing tendency among the Western policy community to amalgamate the risk emanating from Yemen and Somalia, on the basis that al-Qaeda affiliates in both countries are recruiting Western citizens, and have the potential to work more closely together.
- Both AQAP and al-Shabaab have developed successful narratives around injustice that are not being addressed by existing Western interventions.
- On the contrary, Western policies are contributing to a sense among some Yemenis and Somalis of being ‘under attack’ and are drawing them towards radicalization and militancy.
- The threat of radicalization extends throughout the far-flung diasporas of Somalia and Yemen, defying efforts at containment within the two countries and requiring new thinking about stemming the appeal of radicalism at source.
- Conventional counter-terrorism and counter-piracy strategies are hindered by the existence of multi-million-dollar shadow business networks spanning the Gulf of Aden.