ABSTRACT
Somalia is a geocultural region and it has been wracked by civil war for a quarter-century. The author states that the region's multiple security and humanitarian challenges as of 2012 and then sketch a contrarian approach to establishing a more stable and effective political order. His central point is that the prospects for stability and security in Somalia need to build on Somalis' political culture and practice of authority, which means essentially the clan structure. Barre's power base was the Darod clan family and more narrowly his Marehan subclan of central Somalia and the Ogaden (eastern Ethiopia). Forestall humanitarian disasters in Somalia in future will depend on working with existing authorities and encouraging new ones in the areas being recovered from Al-Shabaad control. Kenyan forces intervened in southern Somalia in October 2011, nominally in pursuit of jihadists who had kidnapped foreigners in northern Kenya.
