ABSTRACT
Somaliahasbeencharacterizedasasocietywithoutorderbymostofthe worldcommunity.Thecharacterizationhasbeenamplifiedrecentlyby focusinguponthearmedconflictamongthedifferent'clans'.Thebenchmark forjudgingthenatureandscaleoftheSomalicrisisistheconditionof statelessness,oftenmeasuredbytheabsenceofacentralpoliticalauthority anddisregardforthemodemclaimtoauniversalorderandruleoflaw.The effectiveoperationofacentralstateisconsideredauniversalmeasuringscale forpoliticalstabilityandsocialorder(GillsandRocamora,1992).The centralizingstateisconceivedastheembodimentofauniversalorder.The statewasimposedonSomaliabyEuropeancolonialpowers,and subsequentlyreinforcedbythesuperpowerssinceindependencein1960.
