| ID | 168855 |
| Title Proper | Domestication of Al-Shabaab |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Bacon, Tricia |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | How much influence did foreign fighters exert over al-Shabaab’s insurgency in Somalia? An emerging policy consensus is that foreign fighters exert decisive influence on insurgencies, even affecting conflict duration, intensity, and outcomes. Nevertheless this study argues that foreign combatants in Somalia have exerted a more limited influence than this consensus suggests, though this influence has varied over time. Foreign fighters were present within al-Shabaab from its inception, and remain a part of the group over ten years later. Over this period, non-Somali combatants enjoyed the most influence during the insurgency against Ethiopian forces between 2007 and 2008, when al-Shabaab was a young organization facing a superior enemy. Over time, foreign fighters’ influence within the insurgency in Somalia diminished as al-Shabaab became “domesticated,” i.e. gained controlled of territory and began to govern. This study examines four periods in recent Somali history: the Islamic Court Union’s rise pre-2006, the Ethiopian invasion from 2007 to 2008, al-Shabaab’s territorial conquests from 2009 to 2010, and the internal divisions and purge from 2011 to 2013. This article concludes with a word of caution on the growing perceptions that foreign fighters shape insurgencies and that their involvement significantly helps or hurts local opposition movements. In the case of al-Shabaab’s insurgency in Somalia, transnational insurgents shaped external actors’ calculus in ways that have affected the conflict’s duration, intensity, and even outcomes, but they did not have a commensurate impact within the insurgency. |
| `In' analytical Note | Journal of Middle East and Africa Vol. 10, No.3; Jul-Sep 2019: p.279-305 |
| Journal Source | Journal of Middle East and Africa Vol: 10 No 3 |
| Key Words | Insurgency ; International terrorism ; Foreign fighters ; Al-Shabaab |