STATE COLLAPSE: THE DYNAMICS OF SOMALIAS DECLINE

A Review of Related Literature Submitted to: Sir Celito F. Arlegue International Studies Department Miriam College- Quezon City

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements in International Studies 102 (Political Analysis)

Domaoan, Andrea Marie Pilar, Ma. Raphaela Porta, Angelique Fatima Santos, Ma. Farina Kim Bachelor of International Studies Major in Development

October 2010

Abstract
The state collapse, specifically Somalia, is not a simple political conflict heavily dependent on the incompetence of its government and institutions, as initially assumed; rather, it is a collective failure that is often overlooked. The neglect on the impact of foreign affairs, economic and social problems to a states instability enforced our need to stress on the importance of non-state actors. Other factors outside the government like ethnicity and environmental facets are crucial in understanding the dynamics of a state collapse. The purpose of this paper is to provide an explanation of how and why the state of Somalia collapsed based on the interconnecting past case studies done about it. Finally, the researchers believe that this Review of Related Literature, would serve as a guide for future researchers in grasping further the dynamics of a state collapse because studies concerning state collapse and state failure have been gaining more attention in the recent years.

Introduction Somalia, situated in the continent of Africa, is a country with a new transitional parliamentary government. It is one of the poorest countries in the world. The collapse of its government in 1991 accompanied by clan wars and civil unrest continues to wound the country. Somalias political, social and economic situations are highly problematic; its people face dire consequences from the instability and the absence of a formal government to provide citizens with opportunities, services and security. Occurrences of terrorism, hunger, and human rights violation rise as the standards of living plummet. The lost decade (no government intervention) of Somalia has effectively caused its people a lifetime of suffering. The collapse of the state, seen as an escalation from state failure happens when law, political order and the structure of authority decline; leaving the civil society in chaos without a central entity governing them (Rotberg, 2003). The dissolution of the formal institutions, governments failure to meet the demands of its citizens, and anarchy are the primary characteristics of failed states; this is not a new phenomenon, it has been experienced by different countries like Yugoslavia and Somalia. This Review of Related Literature tackles on the different issues, problems and conflicts that the Somali faced but failed to overcome, resulting to the collapse of their state. It seeks to internalize, describe, enhance and further elaborate the different perspectives and studies about this issue. This paper is divided into three interdependent parts. The first part shows the dominant theoretical frameworks found in the resources explaining the state collapse. The second part tackles the empirical data gathered about the issue while the third part explains the research gaps identified in the study that would be useful for more comprehensive studies in the future. And finally, the conclusion statement would be intrinsically interwoven with the content and would disseminate the viewpoints and concluding remarks of the researchers based on their own understanding and integration of some studies. Theoretical Approaches in the study of State Collapse Following Rotbergs characterization, a collapsed state is incapable to manage conflict within its territory and consequently enforce security to its citizens. It is unable to provide the people essential services like health care or education and basic infrastructures are dissolved for an extensive part of the territory within a considerable period of time. (Rotberg, 2003) State collapse has been largely equated to the failure of governments, limiting it to the walls of the public sphere and disconnecting it with the extra political features that are also important in state affairs. This oversimplification is what scholars aimed to challenge by highlighting in their surveyed works the roles of economy, ecology, ethnicity, international relations and the civil society. Part of the explanation for this oversimplification is that States are closely associated with the legitimacy and domination of governments. Supporting the need
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for a diversified understanding on state collapse apart from its usual structural implication is the claim that humanitarian consequences of political disintegration and anarchy include famine, destruction of economic infrastructure, human right abuses and internally displaced persons that can ultimately lead to state collapse (Lyons and Samatar, 1995). Internal and external factors influence the stability of a state, in the same way actors and institutions can contribute to its instability. Both structural and agential interferences are responsible in upholding or extinguishing a states legitimacy and survival. Scholars studying the subject matter have predominantly identified the state collapse as an institutional failure followed by the cessation of government structures. It is also important to recognize that this supposed institutional failure is not exclusive to the governments actions alone, but is also affected by non-state actors like the international community, ethnic groups, other agential actors and their respective activities. In the course of our research, we noticed that the major argument of the study regarding state collapse rests in the Institutionalism-Intentionalism discourse wherein both aim to explain the nature of the political phenomenon by evaluating the impact of structural and agential factors and assessing the importance of institutional political systems and intentions of people in shaping political will. Institutionalism and Intentionalism: Main Assumptions and Hypotheses for State Collapse Institutionalism Institutionalism covers the set of laws, corresponding procedures and formal organizations of the political structure and their importance on political practice. By studying the causes and effects of political systems, institutionalism attempts to explain the logic of political actions. Marsh and Stoker, 2010 have identified three assumptions that are prominent:
1. Institutions can mold the behavior of the society because structures have great impact on

peoples choices and actions 2. Institutions support the civil society with it services and maintain order through its formal functions 3. Institutionalism is highly history sensitive The first assumption stresses on the influence of institutions in the choices made by the citizens, the environment of people can greatly affect how they make their decisions and carry out their activities. The second assumption gives emphasis on governing ability of institutions. Laws exist to maintain order in a society and institutions uphold these laws to ensure the security and the survival of the state, without the governance of institutions, the state will fall into anarchy. The last assumption means that history is used to comprehend the enduring system of laws and the durability of formal organizations that comprise institutions; since institutions are not created over night and are products of years of stability and consistency. These three main points have supported institutionalists view on state stability or collapse, they believe that a states strength can be measured by the effectiveness of the institutions that manage it and the loss of this central governing body also means the weakness of the state. A state needs public institutions that are effective and efficient otherwise inefficiency of public institutions and poor performance can elicit severe discontent from the public and this discontent can escalate into violent conflict. (Kieh, 2007)
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In connection with the issue of Somalias state collapse, institutionalists would claim that the lack of confidence of the public and the failure of the institutions to give the demands of its citizens and the governments poor performance led to the decline. The government is then given a considerable amount of importance in state collapse as institutions become the foundation of political activities and behavioral conditioning of the states citizens. The disintegration of the institutions of Health and Education significantly accounts to the collapse. Intentionalism Intentionalists believe that agential factors are crucial in a political phenomenon and that people are not bound to structures or institutions alone. Decisions of actors can spark a tide of change that can alter the mechanisms of political systems themselves. Intentionalism is concerned with the ability of actors to shape the course of their actions in line with their intentions and as a result of free will. Intentionalism follows 2 main assumptions (Hay, 2002): 1. The ability of decision makers can change the course of events 2. Political outcomes can be explained by the intentions of actors and the choices they make. The first assumption means that decisions made by an actor can change how things go; agents are just as important as institutions in influencing political change. The second assumption stresses on the intentions of actors that determine their line of action. A persons intention can be articulated through political action and these goals that people have can become a mobilizing force. Actors have their own free will that they use for judgment and more often than not it is their intentions that gain bigger weight in decision making. Examining the two theoretical frameworks we can notice that institutionalists and intentionalists differ in the following important aspects:
1. While institutionalists place great value in the formal institutions such as government as an

organizing factor, intentionalists believe that agents have considerable impact in political activities 2. While institutionalists believe that the environment or the structures determine the course of political action and its outcome, that institutions maintain order in the state. intentionalists believe that actors make their own decisions that are significantly influenced by their intentions and in turn affect the institutions In connection with the issue questioned, the collapse of the Somali state specifically; institutionalists would view Somalias collapse as an institutional failure to sustain the needs and demands of its people, its lack of credibility and legitimacy are the main elements of its collapse. In the contrary, the intentionalists would view the collapse as a more individualistic or agential phenomenon that occurs because of peoples conflicting intentions with the capacity of the state. One concrete example is that Siad Barres dictatorship, his greed to stay in power has significantly affected the collapse of Somalia. Consequently, this oppressive dictatorship under Barre sparked revolutionary change by the masses no longer contented of their exploited positions and in the end led to the destabilization of the government. Adding fuel to the fire, the strong desires of different ethnic leaders in the scramble for the territory and resources were pivotal to the collapse.
Table 1: Theoretical Approaches in the State Collapse of Somalia 4

Institutionalist
Lyons, 1995; Kieh, 2007; Saint-Lot, 1994; IRBDC, 1991; Mekonnen, 2006;; Kivimaki, 2001;; Narbeth, nd; Ahmed and Green, 1999; Kivimaki, 2001; Henderson, 1998; CIA, 2010.; Abdullahi, n.d.; Blakley, 1999; Rotberg, 2003

Marxist
Hassig & Latif, 2007 ; Zartman, 1995; Yusuf, 1998; Meyer, 2010; Milliken, 2003; Leeson, n.d; Clement, 2005; Bjorn, 2009

Intentionalist
Ismail, 1997; Little 2003:39; UNDP 2001: 140; Menkhaus, 2003; Mohamed, n.d.; Silva, n.d; Murphy, 2001

Table 1 is the attempt of the researchers to categorize the resources under the theoretical frameworks they found dominant in the study. It would be important to consider that, most of them were not precise in the theoretical framework they lean on and that this categorization is merely a product of the groups analysis of the other scholars main points. Using the table above, it is clear that most of the literature surveyed by the researchers fall into the institutionalist category. But even so, there are differences in their focus on the underlying factors of state collapse the can lead to dysfunctional institutions. They suggest a diverse variety of factors that are needed for state collapse namely economic deprivation (Ahmed & Green, 1999), humanitarian oppression (Lyons, 1995), civil tensions (Leeson, 2006) and international intervention (Blakley, 1999). Six of the sources fall under the intentionalist category, possessing a diverse view on the issue like governments greed (Ismail, 1997), and interclan-violence (Menkhaus, 2003). The table above also includes the Marxist view on the subject matter that can be closely tied to institutionalism but may differ slightly in its focus; while Marxism affiliates itself with structures and institutions as a system to perpetuate class struggle, it has considerable focus on the economic system of the state. In this view, the economic relations within the state determine the political and social relations of its citizens and material relations shape ideas. Also, Marxism supports the claim that structures determine the action of agents (Marsh and Stoker, 2010). The works under this category, namely Meyer (2010) and Milliken (2003) hinted the evolution of pure institutionalism as needed to maintain order to the shift in the importance and inclusion of economic factors characterized by determinism, materialism and structuralism. The studies shown in this category highlighted the structural implication of economic conditions that may lead to state collapse as the economic stability of the state is a pivotal factor to its survival as Leeson and Clement stressed. The Marxist view also attempts to integrate intentionalism in such a way that when people experience constant deprivation they rise up to rebel against the system. This is used by Yusuf (1998) to explain the revolt of the masses against Siad Barres regime in 1991, leading to the governments dissolution. States weaken and fail when they are unable to provide basic functions for their citizens. The economy deteriorates. Education and health care are non-existent, physical infrastructure breaks down. Crime and violence escalate out of control. These conditions generate opposition groups which often turn to armed uprising. (Carment, 2003) The Marxist works about state collapse are one of the few that focuses to integrate the immense impact of economic stability to state weakness. Empirical Studies in the State Collapse of Somalia It is important to take into account both state and non-state actors there has been a continuing discourse on the effects of different factors construction of national identity during decolonization, severe famine that control of resources and overdependence to foreign aid. The survey of the in Somalias collapse, and like Somalias incomplete lead to the clan wars over existing works of different
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scholars tells us that Somalias collapse was indeed put into motion by the four dominant factors: political instability, economic deprivation, socio-cultural tensions and environmental issues. Four Central Dimensions of Somalias State Collapse The Political Sphere Somali Politics can be classified into two sides, first is the formal institutions like government and political regimes while the other is the system of clannism that has been dominant in the country since pre-colonial times. Somalias politics is heavily fragmented due to the fluctuating times of prosperity and chaos in the country. This fragmentation can be categorized into three major elements: Somalias weak government as a result of weak state building, Barres dictatorship and Clannism. It is often assumed that Somalias state collapse was the result of prolonged political instability (Leeson, 2006). For institutionalists, the weak political organizing system attributed to the inability of the government to enforce order among the disorganized masses remains to be a main player in state collapse. Since Somalia has always been dependent to its international donors, the state formation has been jeopardized. Sovereignty was always half-met and because of this Somalias government had no real chance to grow and strengthen itself (Kieth, 2007). Leaning to the intentionalist perspective; Somalias weak government and institutions has been often attributed to Siad Barres authoritarianism, while a state must have strong institutions like education and health care, Barre focused on military expenditures. Barres regime and his shift to socialism has been a favorite topic of many scholars. In almost all the literature the researchers encountered, Siad Barre always played a central role to the collapse by highlighting that his ousting was the supposed turning point of state collapse. Essentially, clan networks control the country, the most powerful clans have all the access to resources, they control the government and the market and all the other at the margin have no real voice. Clans provide a sense of identity and protection to the people (Menkhaus, 2003). The position of a person in a clan can also determine his social status and the opportunities that would be open to him like obtaining territories and gaining seats in office. Heads of the major and sub clans in Somalia are given positions in the parliament to represent their clans and politics in Somalia is controlled by the clans (Yusuf. 1998). In the absence of an effective state authority, clan leaders and other community leaders play a crucial role in providing day-to-day governance in Somalia. In the grassroots level, they are instrumental in maintaining local stability. Clannism has become both an institutional and intentional phenomenon (Mubarak, 1997) One of the ironies of contemporary Somalia is that, influential clan networks, the most powerful social and economic forces are both the sources of stability and security, clan factions are like doubleedged swords. On the one side, clan networks offer a vital level of physical and social security to its members; the clan is an essential source of group protection, social security and customary law in the absence of an effective state structure. On the other side, clannism is a dominant force leading to unstable alliances, diffusion of power and public discord over scarce resources. (Bjorn, 2009) In the midst of a collapsed state, clannism has proved to be a tool for division and destruction, political leaders
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and clan heads can use power to divide and destroy the country with clan wars and civil unrest. Economic and business interests, at times promote inter-clan agreements for the sake of improved market conditions but clans could also resort to armed conflict in pursuit of price-fixing and market control. (Murphy, 2001) The Face of Somalias Economy Somalia is considered as one of the poorest countries in the world ever since the long civil warfare and the ever famous lost decade of the country. Before the collapse, the Somali state has adopted a socialist-oriented economy that pursues central planning of the economy by the government. The main argument in this section is to prove how these economic factors tied up with the government to trigger the collapse of the state. The economic regime in Somalia can be described as intentionalism because although it adheres to socialism this is all but a label. The government, instead of acting for justice and equality for the good of all, which is the principle of socialism, had just gone after those that would benefit themselves. Viewed in the intentionalist perspective, the hardened socialist entrenchment in the economy of Somalia was only made to purely benefit the political rulers and their friends (Ismail, 1997). The goals of these industries were usually to keep incentives as being productive as possible and keep their company costs down while not usually attending to the consumers demands. Factory Managers cared only about meeting quotas and this led them to pursue wasteful activities (Little 2003:39). With this, all rules and laws regarding trade imports and exports, all foreign aids, and all that encompass the economic sphere was handled by the State. This has made all industries, private sectors and individuals largely dependent on the government handling of the economy. But during the late 1970s, authoritarian leader, Siad Barre, had completely extracted socialism (forming a complete intentionalism approach) but still continued the central planning to magnetize Foreign Aids from International Organizations. Companies continued to receive subsidies, foreign aid was channeled through state institutions and the state remained sole arbiter in the allocation of profitable contracts. Private sector autonomy was further curtailed by political patronage, which was the easiest way to access resources controlled by the state (UNDP 2001: 140). The Somali Economy was greatly agricultural (crop and livestock production). But since Somalia does not have a strong domestic fund to support them, they relied heavily on multilateral, bilateral and humanitarian aids from International organizations and countries. According to the Federal Research Division, most economic adjustment programs of the Somali Government were implemented through the foreign aids that were given by the different countries and International Organizations. These foreign aids fueled the economy and made it dependent. However, the government has other motives for these aids, state-owned industries and the natural resources of the country - they are basically using these different factors to finance and support the military sector because of their insecurity with their countrys security (Ismail, 1997). So instead of the money and labor to go to the economy sector, they were mainly attributed to the military sector. It only left few resources to till, few resources to use, and few resources to cultivate to sustain the development of the country, hence the slowly downfall and demise of the economy. The people became deprived of their basic needs and the industries were mainly used for the profit of the state. With this, the expectation of the people that the State would attend to their needs
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increased, but the State cant go beyond these expectations because they lack the skills and proper governance, they fall short in their responsibility. Since most of their economic activities and livelihood programs depended largely on these foreign aids, the downfall of the Somali economy can be attributed to the withdrawal of these aids. It may be an exaggeration to claim that the Somali State is a creation of external assistance, but it is indisputable that the state has never been remotely sustainable by domestic sources of revenue (Menkhaus, 1997). Quoting Terrence Lyons, he supported this view when he stated that when external support was withdrawn and societal demand for economic advancement and better governance increased. In summary, the dependent economy that was steered by failed governance had self-destructed and led to the failure of the economy. This Economic collapse in turn, yields off internal conflicts and along with other factors, have led to the collapse of the State. Generally, the economy of Somalia was largely in agreement with intentionalism and that being socialist at the very first part, account so little to the collapse of the State. A Marxist point of view under Intentionalism can be interpreted here in the light of making an economy to support the country through the means of foreign aids since Marxism privileges economic relations because these relations determines the social and political relations (Marsh& Stoker, 2002). Socio-cultural Malady Somalia falls short of its responsibilities for its people that accounts for it to go on the blink from a societal perspective. These societal perspectives can be measured using: 1.) 2.) 3.) 4.) Health Nomadic Lifestyle Humanitarian Crisis Ethnic Wars

Before the civil war, there were 4 hospitals in Mogandishu, clinics and health facilities owned by the government. Somalia had experienced high incidence of disease during the early 1990s (Somalia health,) and drought-led famine in 1970 and 1980 that caused starvation and eventually led to death (Hassig & Latif, 2001) of a lot of Somali people. Malaria was prevalent on families living along rivers. Widespread malnutrition was due to the repeated drought the country experienced during the late 1970s causing high child mortality rate (Somalia health,) and at the same time caused Somali people to go to refugee camps. There are also other factors that contributed to the poor health condition of the people in Somalia. Environmental factors, especially human-caused factors are also important. Improper waste disposal (Mohamed, 2001) and hazardous nuclear chemical waste by other countries along the Somali coast (Hassig & Latif, 2001) only worsened the situation. The health condition of Somali people are caused by structural factors such as drought-led famine, diseases and malnutrition. These factors are something that the people and the government cannot do anything about. The man-made environmental problems can be analyzed in an agential way. The Somali people and the countries who are involved in dumping hazardous waste knew that it is not
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correct to do those kinds of activities. Still, they refused to follow the rules and act as they please resulting to the further deterioration of Somalias health. Both the structural and agential factors contribute to the collapse of the Somali government. The structural factors are something that the Somali government and the people cannot stop; these factors can be attributed as institutional. The agential factors on the other hand can be only if the Somali people are disciplined and the foreign countries are sanctioned or stopped and these factors can be considered agential. With the worsening condition of the health of the Somali people, it eventually became uncontrollable making the Somali government even more unstable. On another note, majority of the people living in Somalia are nomadic and semi-nomadic (SaintLot, 1994) relying in pastoral such as raising livestock, for their survival (IRBDC, 1991). These nomads would usually gather into clans or large groups (Saint-Lot, 1994) moving from territories to territories in search for areas where water conditions are good (IRBDC, 1991). Some clans clash in order to secure the scarce resources of their territory in times of drought (Mekonnen, 2006). This factor can be analyzed as structural. It is in the culture of the people in Somalia to live a nomadic lifestyle, therefore it is the norm or almost like a rule. The formation of clans also goes the same with that of their nomadic lifestyle. The nomadic lifestyle of the people in Somalia and how it is related to structuralism contributed the collapse of the government. The nomadic people Somalia form into clans since it is in their culture to do so. These clans, though they have a system of conflict resolution and contractual obligations (IRBDC, 1991), have the tendency to clash with one another which can be considered as agential. Factors such as the repeated drought and worsening case of famine (Hassig & Latif, 2007) resulted to scarcity of resources. Clans, in reaction to the worsening case of the situation, engaged in conflict not only with the other clans (Mekonnen, 2006) but also the government (Kivimaki, 2001) contributing to the collapse of their weakening government. The main argument of the Humanitarian Crisis is to establish how institutional and Intentional humanitarian challenges of Somalia before and during Barres rule became one of the factors that led to the collapse of Somalia. For Intentionalism - Human rights abuses, indiscriminate violence, and arbitrary arrests and detentions in Somalia have created a humanitarian crisis (Silva, n.d.). Humanitarian disaster can be very much attributed to the clan wars that perpetuated Somalia (Blakley, 1999) which results to arm conflicts that carry the risk of displacement (Menkhaus, 2003). To support this view, we quote Professor Menkhaus in his report, In the early 1990s, these crimes reached horrific levels, producing famines which claimed a quarter of a million lives and which themselves constituted a massive human rights violation. For Institutionalism - humanitarian abuses is reflected in the implanted social traditions of the country. Rape is one example, it is use as a weapon in wartime, and usual targets are women in socially weak and vulnerable groups (Menkhaus, 2003). Another example is the Female Genital Mutilation to which 95 per cent of Somali women undergo and though many local religious authorities that FGM should stop because they have no basis in the Koran, local authorities have taken no action (United Nations, Commission on Human Rights, Report of the Special Rapporteur Paragraph 75). Last example is the discrimination of minorities where they are habitually subjected to abuse and exploitation
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(examples are Bantu clan). These minority groups only have little protection under customary law and have virtually no recourse to a system of justice when victimized (Narbeth, n.d). Humanitarian Crisis can account for the collapse of the State because efforts to protect human rights are pursued in an unusual context in Somalia (Menkhaus, 2003) meaning to say, people are not secured from harm and they are exposed to great dangers of the wild country. If there are great humanitarian crises problems, development would not pursue and it will eventually corrode the political system. The social and political structure of Somalia is comprised of clan families and clans with subclans, primary ancestry, and `dia-paying groups (Ahmed and Green, 1999). The number of these clans is constantly increasing leading to more chances of conflicts and clashes. One main reason for the conflicts that arise between and among these groups is territorial competition (Ahmed and Green, 1999). Inter-clan violence eventually fused hundreds of thousands of Somalis to cross Ethiopian and Kenyan borders (Mekhaus, 1993) that results to people opting for other countries to live in rather than their own. Although the government was creating cooperatives for rural communities to establish cooperation and unity, clans and nomads are still uncooperative (Ahmed and Green, 1999).
"In Somali culture, clan is the inherited patriarchal lineage of ancestors, passed down orally in detail, generation to generation, determining origin, social standing, and access to territory, property and power. In times of trouble, the clan also pays a penalty for inflicting death or injury, which relieves the burden from individuals and families. At its worst, clan leads to conflict, xenophobia and control. 'But at its best, the clan works like the western world's social security welfare system. It protects, it means that all actions against you and your family will have consequences,' said a Somali source." (IRIN-CEA, 2001)

The argument is that both the agential/intentionalist and structural/institutionalist aspects of ethnic wars led to the collapse of Somalia. Since ethnic groups pursue their own interests while disregarding the efforts of the administration to unify them, the conflicts between clans worsened and soon lead to a failure of governance which can account for one of the reasons why Somalia have collapsed. Environmental Issues Somalia is a country located at the Eastern part of Africa. According to the CIA Factbook, it is principally deserted and experiences irregular rainfall, and hot periods between monsoons. With this, environmental factors that lead to the collapse of the State are: 1.) Geography and 2.) Drought Somalias geography is quite strategic since it is situated on the Horn of Africa that has easy access to the route through Red Sea and Suez Canal (CIA, 2010). This geography attracts many countries that pursue trades and self-interests that lead to the colonization of the country. This colonization divides the country into parts and results to social segmentation of the society into small clan-based communities (Abdullahi, n.d.; Blakley, 1999; Ahmed & Green, 1999). These divisions and the lack of a central government that would administer this small clans could be considered as the objective factors of the collapse of the state (Abdullahi, n.d).
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Geography is largely based on a structuralist perspective because geography is the literal location that gives the country its weather, climate and adaptations that affects its people it is naturally implanted and entrenched and no individual can transform it. Another factor is the Drought. Frequent drought in Somalia is caused by their extreme weather condition. The absence of enough rainfall and the tendency to have a high evaporation rate are some of the factors that caused it (Mohamed, 2001). Eventually, the repeated drought led to severe famine which caused death to a lot of Somali people. This environmental problem ended as rain arrived during the 1980s but was followed by other natural disasters such as flash flood as a result of the incapability of the land to absorb the water which furthermore increased their mortality rate (Hassig & Latif, 2007). This even can be viewed as structuralism in a sense of how drought contributed to the collapse of the Somali government. Drought-led famine means that there are not enough resources for the Somali people to gain access to and scarcity of resources often leads to competition and conflict. Even though there were humanitarian interventions by the United Nations, to feed the starving people of Somalia, it was still not enough to support the peoples needs since Somali clans attack and seize the convoy supply (Henderson, 1998). Similarly are the conflicts of pastoral clans for scarce resources. These are an example of competition (Mekonnen, 2006). Furthermore, the lack of central government that would provide environmental protection (Hassig & Latif, 2007) and the incapability of the government to manage the crisis due to the urban-biased policies (Kivimaki, 2001) could have increased conflict and lessen cooperation between and among the people and the government and thus contributed to the collapse of the Somali government. Research Gaps: Looking Beyond the Borders of Somalia Different reviews and literature about the Somali Collapse embark upon the different factors and how these facilitate the collapse. What the researchers have discerned is that although these factors were genuinely identified and defined there is a still a crack in its entirety. One gap is that different authors and scholars have failed to recognize the feeble nationalism of the people. Somali society has always been divided into nomadic pastoralists in the north and southern agro-pastoralist which have distinctly different cultural, linguistic, and social structures (Ahmed & Green, 1999) this quotation confirms that the Somalis have not deeply internalized the feeling of a unified nation due to the three-tier split of Somalia in its colonization period. Thus, they lack the unity to establish a strong sense of nationalism that can become an organizing feature to strengthen nation-state building. The frail nationalism resulting from colonization produced conflict and competition among clans and many observers have seen clanship as a dominant factor that accounts to a crisis that give way to the collapse (Waldron & Hasci, 1994). The next gap is the overemphasis of the authoritarian regime of Siad Barre to which they place the primary blame for the Collapse of Somalia. The lack of the control of the government, its unstable governance has created a dangerous situation for Somalia (Silva, n.d.). In reference to Ismail Abdirashid, the government is the main reason why the State of Somalian had collapsed. It is the one that triggers the other factors and together with the failure of the government, all other factors have also failed, hence the collapse. This emphasis on the blame overshadows the other crucial factors that also contribute to the collective failure of the State. The Main Gap here is that if scholars only tend to
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blame the authoritarian regime of Siad Barre, it cannot be called a collapse, it is only a failure of one element of the State. So far, scholars have only tried to point fingers at Somalia, formulating that the collapse is due to Somalias own fault its internal disputes, unsuccessful governance, bad geography, climate, weather and greed of actors. What we are attempting to suggest is that we should look at the Collapse of Somalia not only restricted to the processes and internal disputes of the country itself, but also to outside factors that gave way to its collapse. These outside factors are other states and international organizations that made their significant impact to the dynamics of the collapse In the late 19th century, during the years of European scramble for Africa, Somalia was colonized by three countries, namely, Italy, Great Britain, France (Abdullahi, n.d.). With this, we can fervently assume that with just simply the onset of the colonization period in Somalia, the country was introduced to fractions and differences that would eventually lead to ethnic warfare and destabilization of the economy that would account for the collapse of the State. Another outside influence is the two opposing powers of the Cold War. At first, Somalia was a Soviet client and received aids from the Soviet Union but since the death of the pro-American leader in Ethiopia, the Soviet withdrew Somalia and coveted Ethiopia. As a result, Somalia was left in ruins until the United States, the enemy of Soviet, respond to Somalia. They gave Somalia its aids which in turn, had made the Somali government depended and un-moving. (Blakley, 1999) In the late 1980s, the US reduced overseas commitment, Somalia, was hard hit by its decision (Blackley, 1999) This shows that two foreign countries, just fed Somalia with aids instead of assistance which in turn have made the Somali government and economy weak and prone to collapse. Lastly, an important matter that is usually overlooked by scholars and readers alike is the significant improvement Somalia has experienced after the collapse of Siad Barres government. Citizens claimed that their lives were better off when the government was dissolved rather than when it was controlling the country because the humanitarian cruelty along with the authoritarian reign of Barre was indeed abusive. Somali people are safer than they have been in 30 years (UNDP, 2001). The Somali people would gladly choose the collapse of their oppressive government that to remain chained in the exploitative rule. Somalias economy and humanitarian actually improved after the collapse of the government in 1990 as cases of human rights violation and economic monopolization by the authoritarian regime lessened. However, while it is true that Somali people were better off after the collapse of Barres administration their situation is still appalling in the absence of a formal government. The government under Siad Barre was perverted; it was centered not to serve the interest of the citizens but of the heinous elites and this has accounted greatly to the anarchy in Somalia. This only proves that the existence of a government does not immediately guarantee the survival of the state, the presence of the government and its institutions is vital but more than anything else, it is the quality of service the government gives to its people that can boost the development of the country.

Conclusion: Somalia in Full Circle As what is expressed in the first parts of this paper, this paper aspires to explain the different factors that instigate the collapse of the Somali Government. Based on the information above, it can be
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clearly drawn that the collapse of the state is not only due to a factor, but for several factors that administer the processes and inflows of actions and practice within Somalia. This review of related literature urges the need to look after the integration and strengthening of other variables that affect the collapse of the Somali State and not just tie it all up with the political sphere. Yes, the political sphere may be the most important aspect but other variables can also stand up on with their own effect, and offer self-sufficient reasons as to why Somalia had collapsed. In Somalia, the failure of the state to provide good governance, security, and respect for the rule of law is at the very heart of the countrys endemic conflict (Silva, n.d.). We agree that political reasons are the very foundation as to why Somalis collapsed but we should not limit ourselves to these political reasons. This paper is suggestive of recognizing extra-political variables in looking at the events that led to the collapse of Somalia for it is strongly believed that it is not only the political and economic aspects that should be looked upon. As we now know it, the Somali governments failure to address the other factors apparently triggered internal conflicts that soon led to its total loss of control. In this light, recognizing the role of extra-political variables, will therefore lead to the total understanding of Somalias collapse. Also, it will serve as the foundation for other states in the prevention and avoidance of future conflict and collapse. Wrapping up, the collapse of the Somali government can be traced not only to the main aspects of political, economic, environment and socio-cultural maladies, but it also took in consideration the internal and external factors like nationalism and influences in the domain of the study. In viewing a certain issue, it is important to not only focus on one factor or one sphere because the perspective would turn out biased and insufficient. With this, we have to acknowledge the interdependency and interaction of the different factors in order to address the issue in a comprehensive and inclusive way. The different factors mentioned above contribute to the total whole that causes the collapse of the Somali State. The political factors also accounts to the economic and socio-cultural factors because the political sphere heavy influences the processes and course of the market and industry in the economic, and the tribes and other management of humanitarian issues in the socio-cultural dimension (Ahmed & Green, 1999). On the other note, the political factor can also account for the states geographical location and weather through proper management and enforcement of laws that would address territorial border and access to weather forecasts. As for the economic factor, it also addresses the socio-cultural malady because the tribes usually fight each other in order to maximize access and control of the resources (Menkhaus, 2003). The socio-cultural sphere relatively accounts for the competition in the economy (Silva, n.d.) and the conflicts and disputes over territorial domains in the states location (Menkhaus, 2003). And lastly, the environmental factors largely contributes to the management of the political body of the states border (Hasig and Latif, 2007) and the utilization and maximization of natural resources in the economic sphere (Abdullahi, n.d.). The collapse of the Somali State is a holistic process and should be viewed in its entirety without neglecting other factors. Also, these factors equally contribute to the collapse of the state and not only one factor is responsible for the collapse. The amalgamation of the different factors is a step in neutralizing the biases found in some studies and offers a better way of looking at the complexity of the issue. Drawing the lines, this paper is laying out the consequences and cost if there is no proper relationship among the structures and the actors of a country it should be bear in mind that structure
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and agencies are not separate entities, actually, there is really no structure-agency debate, there is only interaction among and between structures and agencies. The case of Somalia is an example that effective cooperation between actors (inside-inside & outside-outside) and balanced harmonization and coordination would be so effective to a country in fact, it could have saved lives and money in Somalia (Blakley, 1999).

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