Somalis and international forces held mutually incompatible expectations of the intervention

Evidence

The importance of re-empowering traditional community leaders in the country at large was strongly urged on U.N.O.S.O.M. by the Swedish-based ‘Reference Group’ (which the author, at the U.N.’s request, helped to establish at the beginning of the operation). This small international group of social scientists with Somali expertise met from time to time with Muhammad Sahnoun and subsequently other U.N. officials. We tried to emphasize the uncentralized character of the Somali segmentary politcal system. In our view this necessitated a ‘bottom-up’ rather than a top-down, hierarchical approach to understanding the Somali situation. U.N. officials, with their cumbersome, extremely hierarchical system, found this very hard to understand, far less apply. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 898 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The UN’s hierarchical structure prevented it from applying a bottom-up Somali approach — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 898; The U.S. assumed its technical superiority would easily overwhelm the Somalis — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 628; International actors assumed Somalis needed a centralized regime and feared their refugee flows. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 712

Related

• The UN’s hierarchical structure prevented it from applying a bottom-up Somali approach (similarity 0.90)
• International actors assumed Somalis needed a centralized regime and feared their refugee flows. (similarity 0.87)
• UN diplomats’ ignorance and indirect diplomacy deepened their isolation from Somalis (similarity 0.84)
• European refugee pressures drove international support for a Somali centralized government (similarity 0.84)
• UN successors abandoned direct diplomacy, deepening mutual mistrust with Somali factions. (similarity 0.83)
• A smaller single force with Somali experience could have outperformed UNOSOM II (similarity 0.83)
• Somalis distrusted the UN Secretary-General as pursuing Egyptian regional interests (similarity 0.81)
• The U.S. assumed its technical superiority would easily overwhelm the Somalis (similarity 0.81)
• European refugee politics motivated international pressure for Somali state formation. (similarity 0.80)
• Cold War superpowers rejected Somalia’s nonaligned democratically committed government (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• The UN’s hierarchical structure prevented it from applying a bottom-up Somali approach #expands (0.70) — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 898