[US’ historical legacies of brutality in Somalia, connecting
these patterns to the US corporate interests in extracting natural
resources in Somalia, and the broader legacies of militarized
accumulation, environmental destruction, and racist brutality]
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HOW THE UNITED STATES UNDERDEVELOPED SOMALIA  
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Jason C. Mueller
November 13, 2023
Marxist Sociology Blog - Theory, Research, Politics
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_ US’ historical legacies of brutality in Somalia, connecting these
patterns to the US corporate interests in extracting natural resources
in Somalia, and the broader legacies of militarized accumulation,
environmental destruction, and racist brutality _

, John Martiez Pavliga

 

On September 6, 2023, the United States military reportedly assisted
the Somali government in an deadly counter-terrorism operation
[[link removed]] that killed
[[link removed]] five
civilians. For many Americans, their immediate thought to hearing of
this news is probably something along the lines of: _I had no idea
the US was militarily active in Somalia! What are they even doing
there?_

I have written about US interventionism
[[link removed]] in
[[link removed]] Somalia
[[link removed]] for
the greater part of the past decade. Specifically, I focus on
the thirty years
[[link removed]] of
uninterrupted US economic, ideological, and  militarized
interventions, under the auspices of ‘humanitarianism’ and
‘counter-terrorism.’

In two recent
[[link removed]] publications
[[link removed]], I outline the US’
historical legacies of brutality in Somalia, connecting these patterns
to the US corporate interests in extracting natural resources in
Somalia, and the broader legacies of militarized accumulation,
environmental destruction, and racist brutality meted out against
people of the global South.

The US’ legacy is Somalia is grim, and few Americans are aware of
their government’s activities in the Horn of Africa. To broach this
subject, consider headlines from several news outlets and human rights
monitoring organizations over the past several years:

* “US military shows appalling disregard for civilians killed in
Somalia air strike” (Amnesty International
[[link removed]],
2019)
* “The Trump Administration’s Air Strikes in Somalia Are On the
Rise Again—and Civilians Are Paying the Price” (Nick Turse, TIME
Magazine
[[link removed]], 2020)
* “Joe Biden Is Ramping Up the US’s Forever War in Somalia”
(Samar Al-Bulushi, Jacobin
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2022)

As of October 17, 2023, _Airwars_
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US conducted at least 282 operations in Somalia over the past sixteen
years, with reasonable confidence that between 85-161 civilians were
killed.

That number does not count “militants/insurgents/terrorists” that
the US routinely confirms killing. Oftentimes, after the US conducts a
military strike, it will confirm the death of alleged
“terrorists,” only to face investigations from outside sources.
The results of such investigations
[[link removed]] often
unveil civilians are indeed being killed in Somalia. Many Somalis live
in fear, wondering [[link removed]] if their
loved ones will be the next victim of the US’ secret war in their
country.

WHY THE UNITED STATES MAINTAINS AN INTEREST IN SOMALIA

In the 1990s, the US justification
[[link removed]] for
intervening in Somalia was grounded in the post-Cold-War discourse of
“humanitarian interventionism.” As the 2000s approached, the US’
spying-on, military intervening-in, and economic strangulation-of
Somalia was now justified under the banner of fighting a “global war
on terrorism.” In Somalia, this was a fight against the Union of
Islamic Courts [[link removed]], and then
the al-Shabaab
[[link removed]] insurgency.

Despite official proclamations of humanistic benevolence, the US’
maintains an interest in keeping a neo-colonial relationships with the
ruling political bloc in Somalia. US-friendly politicians work in
lockstep with US dictates, in their “counter-terrorism”
operations, and other ‘development’ goals. The US’ keen interest
in the Horn of Africa likely has something to do with creating a
stable environment for large corporations to extract natural resources
in Somalia, and elsewhere.

The Somali State apparatus collapsed in the early 1990s. At that time,
four major oil corporations—Chevron, Conoco, Amoco, and
Philips—were setting-up shop in Somalia. As Mark Fineman reported
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1993, there were “exclusive concessions to explore and exploit tens
of millions of acres” for these companies, and the US government was
one vessel to protect these assets from being harmed. These
investments have been frustrated for the past thirty years. The Somali
State apparatus remains feeble, its lumpen-capitalist-developmentalist
political establishment is roundly unpopular and distrusted, and a
widespread insurgency grips the country.

THE CASE FOR WARTIME AND CLIMATE REPARATIONS?

Fossil fuel extraction and export is a cornerstone policy of
capitalist developmentalism. However, the allure of oil-drenched
development—to climb the ladder of the stratified
world-economy—offers little to those who suffer most from climate
change. This is tied to the capitalist growth policies of the US, as
a leading emitter
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greenhouse gasses, and  within the confines of the “global war on
terror” in particular.

Brown University’s _Costs of War_ project reported
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2019 that “the U.S. Department of Defense is the largest
institutional consumer of fossil fuels in the world and a key
contributor to climate change.” Alternatively, in 2021 the
government of Somalia reported
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they contribute “less than 0.03 percent of total global
emissions.”

The Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (ND-GAIN) ranks
[[link removed]] Somalia ranks
as one of the most vulnerable regions in the world, in terms of their
ability to absorb the harms of capitalism-induced climate chaos. The
climate emergency was generated by capitalist compulsions to
accumulate and commodity worldwide, and Somali citizens are feeling
the harm caused by Core capitalist powers. For these reasons, climate
reparations
[[link removed]] must
be on the agenda.

In terms of the largely covert economic and militarized war the US
government has waged on the people of Somalia for the past thirty
years, reparations may be in order as well. From the
collective punishment
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shutting down a key economic remittance system for Somali citizens, to
covert drone strikes
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kill and injure civilians, to secret
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run prisons, the US remains unaccountable for their actions.

THE AMERICAN EMPIRE IN AFRICA

In 1972, Walter Rodney wrote the landmark book _How Europe
Underdeveloped Africa_
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In it, he outlines the brutality of European colonial-capitalist
catastrophe that resulted in the hyper-exploitation and
under-development of African societies. In the twenty-first century,
the US maintains an active presence
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across Africa, claiming to be conducting or assisting allied
governments with “counter-terrorism” operations.

For the past thirty years, the United States has contributed to the
destruction of social, economic, political, and environmental fabric
of Somalia. This underdevelopment of the region is done under the
veneer of “humanitarian interventionism,” capitalist extractive
“development” policies, and “counter-terrorism.” The intended
outcomes of such policies: to hyper-exploit Somalia, as a source of
cheap labor and nature.

In other words, we can identify the precise mechanisms by which the US
works to exploit and underdeveloped Somalia.

Despite the substantial impact
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interventions across the world-system, few US sociologists seem
interested in investigating the causes and consequences of these
activities. It is often left to “area studies” specialists,
political scientists, or public policy analysts. Critical sociologists
must contribute to this domain of intellectual inquiry.

The US’ long history of brutalizing and annihilating Black lives,
Muslim lives, and people of the global South has evolved hand in hand
with the spread of capitalism
[[link removed]]. As the
hegemon of the capitalist world-system, the US unleashes ecological,
economic, and militarized destruction like no other country. It’s
about time the American public knows what their government is doing in
Somalia. Perhaps then the US’ foreign policy goals in Somalia can be
(re)considered with honesty.

_JASON C. MUELLER_
[[link removed]]_ is an
Assistant Professor of Sociology at Kennesaw State University._

_This article is based on two recent publications:_

_Jason C. Mueller. 2023. “Does the United States owe reparations to
Somalia?” Race & Class 65(1),
61-82. _https://doi.org/10.1177/03063968231155358_._
[[link removed]]

_Jason C. Mueller. 2023. “Climate change, counter-terrorism and
capitalist development in Somalia.” Review of African Political
Economy, online
first,_ [link removed]. _

The front page of this website is the MARXIST SOCIOLOGY BLOG
[[link removed]], featuring short articles (~1,000
words) on Marxist theory, research and politics. Those who wish to
write for the blog may email the editor-in-chief, Michael McCarthy
([email protected]) with a proposed title and topic (one
paragraph maximum). Items may include:

* News analysis or commentary
* Research findings (summaries of the author’s own published
research)
* Book reviews

* Somalia
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* U.S. intervention
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* neocolonialism
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* fossil fuels
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* U.S. Military
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* Climate Change
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* underdevelopment
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* US Capitalism
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