Fighting for Peace in Somalia

<em>Fighting for Peace in Somalia</em> provides the first comprehensive analysis of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) an operation deployed in 2007 to stabilize the country and defend its fledgling government from one of the world's deadliest militant organizations Harakat al-Shabaab. <p/>The book's two parts provide a history of the mission from its genesis in an earlier failed regional initiative in 2005 up to mid-2017 as well as an analysis of the mission's six most challenges namely logistics security sector reform civilian protection strategic communications stabilization and developing a successful exit strategy. These issues are all central to the broader debates about how to design effective peace operations in Africa and beyond. <p/>AMISOM was remarkable in several respects: it would become the African Union's (AU) largest peace operation by a considerable margin deploying over 22000 soldiers; it became the longest running mission under AU command and control outlasting the nearest contender by over seven years; it also became the AU's most expensive operation at its peak costing approximately US$1 billion per year; and sadly AMISOM became the AU's deadliest mission. Although often referred to as a peacekeeping operation AMISOM's troops were given a range of daunting tasks that went well beyond the realm of peacekeeping including VIP protection war-fighting counterinsurgency stabilization and state-building as well as supporting electoral processes and facilitating humanitarian assistance. <p/>Tana Forum Annual Book Launch 2019 Winner.<br>