Herrschaft und Ordnung jenseits des Staates in Somalia

Abstract

Schlagwörter: Staatszerfall, Staatsbildung, Friedensbildung, Interventionen, hybride politische Ordnungen, Somalia, Somaliland, Puntland

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Governance and Order beyond the State in Somalia.

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the most important institutions and actors that have played a role in delivering a minimum of political order and governance in various parts of Somalia since 1991, sometimes  simultaneously. Among them are traditional authorities, shari’a courts, warlords, businessmen/women, local NGOs, Islamist militias and diasporic groups. The main argument is that statelessness does not equal lack of rule and anarchy. Instead, alternative political orders strive in the absence of functioning state institutions and these orders can acquire a substantial degree of legitimacy in the eyes of the concerned (local and transnational) populations. The external interventions that have characterized the  international approach to Somalia since 1991 have aimed to rebuild formal statehood. These interventions have largely been counter-productive as they have ignored or even fought against most of the existing and emerging alternative political orders, with the exception of the warlords. This has added to the continuation of war and statelessness. The  examples of Somaliland and Puntland, two state-like entities in northern Somalia that are based on a hybrid political system, illustrate that stability and peace are more likely to be reached in the absence of external  interventions.

Keywords: State-collapse, state-building, peace-building, interventions, hybrid political orders, Somalia, Somaliland, Puntland