Suchergebnisse

Abou-Bakr Abélard Mashimango. Vom Pansomalismus zum Separatismus : Extremismus und Gewalt in Somalia
Der Artikel illustriert die Phänomene der Entstehung ethnisch-oder religiösidentitärer Gruppen im politischen Leben eines Staates oder der Absicht, einen Staat zu bilden. Er beschreibt die Entwicklung der Gewaltbereitschaft in Somalia von der Dekolonisierung bis in unsere Zeit und zeigt die existierenden Spannungen zwischen einem föderalistischen Pansomalismus, der jedoch die somalischen Ethnien der Nachbarländer zum Separatismus anregt, und den separatistischen Bewegungen innerhalb von Somalia, die in den Konflikten zwischen Klans um den Zugang zur Staatsmacht begründet sind. Der Extremismus entsteht aus einer Mobilisierung, die auf einer mehrschichtigen Loyalität beruht.

The age-old and recurrent scourge of piracy seems to be undergoing a transformation in the context of attacks off the coast of Somalia. The international community, confronted with major disruptions to maritime transport, is mobilizing in a quite remarkable way within the particularly tangled web of political, economic, legal and military concerns. This paper describes the overall legal framework laid down by the International Maritime Organization, a specialized United Nations agency, to combat this form of crime and the regional strategy currently being developed on the model of the Malacca Strait precedent.

The policing operations against acts of maritime violence which have been conducted since 2008 by several actors off the coast of Somalia raise a number of interesting questions. Examination of the introduction of these operations, oscillating between Chapter VII and Somali consent, and of their exact incidence on international law of the sea shows that the legal regime surrounding them is far from unequivocal. The unsettled rules and regulations about these operations, mainly with respect to international law of the sea and human rights, explain that it is ultimately in the area of international responsibility that the very many uncertainties in this field will have to be dissipated, in particular by virtue of possible involvement of the European Court of Human Rights.

Reform of the UN, by Maurice Bertrand
The 1993 General Assembly will very likely debate the possibility of enlarging the Security Council to include Germany and Japan. Traditional concepts of UN reform are not favourable towards Charter revision. However the fact that the United States has declared itself in favour of an expansion of the Council and that the other permanent members are not fundamentally opposed could lead to the adoption of a limited amendment creating, for example, five new permanent members. However the more or less total failure of Council initiatives in Yugoslavia, Somalia and Angola show that serious questions must be posed concerning the functions and strategies of the organi zation, the value of collective security system and peacekeeping forces. The relation between global economic integration and social disintegration and the adaptation of the structure of the United Nations system to deal with world-wide problems must also be examined. A revision of the Charter could be an opportunity to reflect upon these problems.

Im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert betrachtete die Türkei nur Nordafrika als einen wesentlichen Teil des Osmanischen Reiches und vernachlässigte Afrika südlich der Sahara, es sei denn, es standen lebenswichtige Interessen auf dem Spiel. Die Apathie aufeinanderfolgender türkischer Regierungen änderte sich jedoch mit dem "Afrika-Aktionsplan" von 1998. Seitdem hat der türkische Staat seine diplomatischen, politischen, wirtschaftlichen und kulturellen Interaktionen mit Subsahara-Afrika intensiviert. Einen weiteren Schub erhielten die türkisch-afrikanischen Beziehungen, als Ankara 2005 zum "Jahr Afrikas" erklärte. Obwohl die überwiegend muslimische Region Nordafrikas aufgrund der gemeinsamen Geschichte im Fokus der türkischen Außenpolitik steht, hat die Bedeutung der Subsahara-Region auch aufgrund der wachsenden Nachfrage nach militärischen und medizinischen Gütern zugenommen. Seit 2005 betreibt Ankara Förderung in Form von Staatsaufbau in Subsahara-Afrika, obwohl es nicht der westlichen Demokratisierungspolitik folgt. Das wachsende wirtschaftliche, politische und sicherheitspolitische Engagement der Türkei in Afrika zielt darauf ab, neue Märkte für seine Industriegüter zu erschließen, insbesondere für seine Verteidigungs- und Rüstungsindustrie. Indem es sich als relevante Regionalmacht ohne kolonialen Ballast präsentiert, grenzt sich die Türkei von traditionellen westlichen Akteuren auf dem Kontinent ab. Das Engagement der Türkei in Subsahara-Afrika unterschied sich deutlich von dem anderer aufstrebender Mächte wie Brasilien, Russland, Indien, China und Südafrika. Während Ankara die Missachtung westlicher Sanktionen aufgrund demokratischer Defizite der BRICS-Mitglieder teilte, ging es über herkömmliche Staat-zu-Staat-Beziehungen hinaus und setzte zunehmend auf die Zusammenarbeit mit nichtstaatlichen Akteuren. Afrikanische Partner schätzen türkische Produkte und Expertise. Darüber hinaus hat Ankara einen koordinierten Ansatz zur Zusammenarbeit mit afrikanischen Staaten und Führern gewählt und Verstrickungen mit internationalen Organisationen oder anderen Allianzen vermieden, wie in Somalia und Kenia, aber in jüngerer Zeit auch in weiten Teilen Ost-, Süd- und Westafrikas. Dies wird am Beispiel der drei westafrikanischen Staaten Nigeria, Ghana und Elfenbeinküste gezeigt.

Africa and India share a long history of trade, investment and slavery. The Portuguese alone brought up to 80,000 slaves from Mozambique to India since the 16th century. Unlike slaves in other parts of the world, African slaves, soldiers, and traders had a strong military and cultural influence on India's culture and society. Some of the slaves even held privileged positions. Today India competes with other global players, especially China, for African resources and markets. Growing racism and Afrophobia towards African migrants, however, could hamper the ambitions of the New-Delhi government. India's social networks and political leaders are increasingly looking for scapegoats and "strangers" to blame for their failures due to religious, racist and linguistic prejudice. Racism and Afrophobia did not appear first under Modi's administration, but they have become more daunting and contagious. The famous Indian writer and political activist, Arundhati Roy, rated Indian racism towards black people as almost worse than white peoples' racism. For example, Africans, who were often summarily disqualified as "Nigerians", were generally accused of being drug dealers and even suspected of "cannibalism". Yet, Indian authorities at all political levels did not effectively counter this. On the contrary, they not infrequently encouraged these prejudices. Modi, for example, compared breakaway Indian regions to "Somalia".

Sub-Saharan Africa emerged in the past years as global epicentre of Islamist terrorism. The impact of terrorism on the economy has a negative bearing on the formal and a positive effect on the informal sector. Among other things, this is due to the poorly diversified development economies of African countries and the class-specific impact of terrorism on welfare. This concerns not only a drop in sales, income and employment and rising transaction costs in the affected sectors, but also increasing poverty, hunger and hardship for the poor and needy. Transnational terrorism amplifies both the negative and the positive effects. African countries that have suffered severely from these attacks include Somalia, Kenya, Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, South Sudan, Libya and Egypt. But even West African countries such as Ghana and Senegal which have been spared so far from terrorist attacks, the menace is growing, and economic effects are already tangible. Since the informal sector, i.e. the shadow economy with all its ambivalent facets, including cross-border crime, is still dominant in many African countries, especially in West Africa, this sector is of particular importance. It is still one of the largest in the world. The fight against Islamist terrorism is not just a military issue. In the economic sphere too it should be fought at its roots. Since most of the African poor live in and from the informal sector, which is also a breeding ground for criminal activities such as human trafficking of all kinds, money laundering and terrorists, they suffer the most from the negative consequences. Terrorists' sources of funding often derive from the proceeds of illegal trade. The close ties between criminal and terrorist groups can undermine the very foundations of the republican state and weaken democratic institutions.