The African Union's African Mission in Somalia (AMISOM): Why Did It Successfully Deploy Following the Failure of the IGAD Peace Support Mission to Somalia (IGASOM)?

Un extracto de la tesis:

In March 2005, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) officially agreed to assume responsibility for fielding a peacekeeping mission in Somalia on behalf of the African Union (AU) and in support of the peace process in the country.1 In March 2006, Kenya’s Foreign Minister declared that despite its best efforts, IGAD had failed in its attempts to deploy a peacekeeping mission to Somalia. In this admission of defeat by an African international organization, the Minister cited three specific reasons for the failure to field the peacekeeping operation: a fragmented political approach; the lack of funding; and the existence of a UN arms embargo on Somalia.2 Members of IGAD continued to seek solutions to these problems throughout 2006 until the African Union (AU) assumed direct responsibility for the peacekeeping mission and fielded the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in January 2007.3 The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the problems cited by IGAD and determine if AMISOM’s successful deployment can be at least partially attributed to correcting them between March 2006 and March 2007.