Stabilizing Somalia: can the EU's comprehensive approach work?

Towards security governance as a critical tool: a conceptual outline

“…In the case of Somalia, for instance, the EU is involved in a complex network of partnerships set up to cope with the piracy challenge. This ranges from shipping companies and private security companies to regional and international organizations and ultimately dozens of states (Ehrhart and Petretto 2013). Despite its general usefulness, the inclusion of numerous actors may also backfire, because the sheer size or the plurality of coordination mechanisms may lead to mere navel-gazing, as in the case of Afghanistan's security forces reform (Gross 2012).…”

Understanding the Connections between the EU Global Strategy and Somali Peacebuilding Education Needs and Priorities

“…EU approaches to Somalia have been largely predicated on a liberal peace‐building agenda, which is top‐down and ignores organic, indigenous local structures (Oksamytna, ), as well as cultural adaptation of international security and development agendas. Yet owing to the historic and cultural complexities of the Somali context, and the protracted politicisation of education over time detailed in previous sections, solutions to security, governance and development issues in Somalia will only have legitimacy if they are seen to come from local communities themselves and not necessarily from the EU and the West (Ehrhart and Petretto, ). Such solutions can come about only if Somalis are educated about their past and their present in an open and critical manner.…”

“…In the end, the EU guides its policies towards Somalia through several pillars: humanitarian aid, development cooperation, political dialogue, and crisis management (Ehrhart and Petretto, ). The narrative in all EU policy documents revolves around the need to intervene in Somalia from the outside to improve the security, governance and development chances of the territories comprising the Horn of Africa.…”

European Union anti-piracy initiatives in the Horn of Africa: linking land-based counter-piracy with maritime security and regional development

“…The EU approach leads to ad-hoc policies that do not properly engage with local communities. Indeed, the EU's Comprehensive Approach to development in Somalia is imbued with a technocratic understanding of state-building as capacity-building, is halfheartedly applied, and does not take into account local characteristics in a meaningful way, This is in contrast to Operation Atalanta which has been a relative success in comparison, but the point is all EU actions have preferred military and counter-insurgency approaches to the issue of Somali security over dealing with land-based development problems that exist 55 . It is clear that only a comprehensive EU land-based approach to piracy driven by development will have any lasting positive impact on the region.…”