ZenPundit
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
 
IS EXPORTING SECURITY THE KEYSTONE FOR REBUILDING FAILED STATES?

The Economist has an article on failing and failed states that all but screams " System Administration Now !". The article is worth your time to read.

One point that I thought was particularly insightful:

"Lawlessness, it is often argued, creates space for terrorists to operate. This is sometimes true: there are almost certainly al-Qaeda operatives lurking in Somalia and the wilder parts of Pakistan. But the most-cited example, Afghanistan, does not really support this argument. Osama bin Laden used Afghanistan as a base not because it was a failed state, but because its government invited him to."

Somalia may offer al Qaida operatives freedom from state interference but its total lack of functioning rule-sets make the region a tough place to set up shop on a large scale. Taliban-ruled Afghanistan provided enough order to grow Bin Laden's network of training camps, safe houses, command and control centers and fortified redoubts - all of which require the uninterrupted flow of food, water, supplies, recruits and information. Somalia can provide none of these things with certainty or regularity.

There is state-sponsored terror like the relationship between Hezbollah and Syria and Iran. There is socially sponsored terror by elements of the Saudi and Pakistani elite in defiance or in tolerance of their respective states. There is also the parasitical relationship enjoyed by al Qaida which grafted onto the larger, ruder, Taliban mass and eventually came to dominate the host movement so thoroughly that Mullah Omar led his group to destruction on Bin Laden's behalf.

We should be looking for al Qaida's next likely host.
 
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