Afghanistan 'Shows Billions Won't Defeat Somalia's Al-Shabaab'

Afghanistan is not Somalia. But it serves as a cautionary tale that billions of dollars, untold international support, and top-down strategies are not sufficient to defeat a stubborn and patient insurgency. Somalia's insecurity problem needs a Somali solution. Somalia's security challenges are almost always discussed at the macro level. For nearly a decade, the federal government and its international partners have looked at the country's challenges primarily through the lens of "grand strategies".

Grand strategies are crucial for medium- and long-term security planning, but those in Somalia have fallen short. While they may have looked impressive and ambitious on paper, the reality on the ground has been very different as the country has tried to implement them in the face of the immediate challenge of countering Al-Shabaab.

For Somalia's national security policies to be effective, they require more local engagement and participation. This points to another necessary change to Somalia's approach. Its grand security strategies are almost always made in isolation from other key social and developmental goals, yet this "security first, everything else afterwards" policy is a failed one. When areas are liberated, al-Shabaab often returns quickly, sometimes within days,  writes Liban Obsiye for African Arguments.