Getting Somalia Wrong? Faith, War and Hope in a Shattered State

Getting Somalia Wrong?

Faith, War and Hope in a Shattered State

Date: Tuesday 7^th February 2012, 6-8PM

Venue: Brunei Suite, SOAS

Book launch with author Mary Harper and journalist Mohammed Adow and Somalia analyst Nuradin Dirie responding.

Chair: TBC

Somalia is the world’s most comprehensively failed state, representing a threat to itself, its neighbours and the wider world.  In recent years, it has become notorious for the piracy off its coast and the rise of Islamic extremism, opening it up as a new "southern front" in the war on terror. At least that is how it is presented by politicians, the international community and the media.

In Getting Somalia Wrong? Mary Harper presents the first comprehensive account of the chaos into which the country has descended and the United States' renewed involvement there. In doing so, Harper argues that viewing Somalia through the prism of al-Qaeda risks further destabilising the country and the entire Horn of Africa. The author argues that although the country may be a failed state, it is far from being a failed society. In reality, alternative forms of business, justice, education and local politics have survived and even flourished.

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