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This chapter examines the concepts and issues related to the so-called complex humanitarian emergencies. It explains that complex humanitarian emergencies are the ultimate manifestation of the economic fragmentation, political turmoil, and human suffering that are spreading in the less developed parts of the world. It analyses various cases of complex humanitarian emergencies during the 1990s, which were mostly in Central Asia, the Horn of Africa, and West Africa.

World War II changed Ethiopia’s place in the world, making it suddenly valuable to the larger powers in a way that it had never been in the past. Haile Selassie used this to his advantage, working diligently throughout the 1940s to convince the U.S. government that he and his nation could be valuable allies. Growing tensions with the Soviet Union and the presence of an Italian-made radio surveillance base in Asmara played right into his hands, ensuring that he remained in control of Ethiopia and that Ethiopia remained in control of Eritrea. The Cold War altered Haile Selassie’s fate, securing his status as emperor. Influential in both Africa and the Middle East, Ethiopia suddenly mattered in Washington.

In mid-1977, the Democratic Republic of Somalia invaded Ethiopia in order to annex the Ogaden, a territory that it had coveted since the 1960s on ethnic and cultural grounds. The invasion, seen as a first step toward the establishment of a Greater Somalia coextensive with the Somali people in the Horn of Africa, ignited a major war of attrition that dragged many external actors into the fray. However, Somalia's military dictator, Siyad Barre, never expected that Ethiopia would get massive support from socialist countries, particularly Cuba and the Soviet Union. Ethiopia would go on to crush and repel Barre's invading army, becoming the most militarized and powerful state in the Horn of Africa after the conflict.

The Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Indian Ocean have always been vital routes for world navigation and traveling. These waters are particularly important for most of the countries in the Middle East and North Africa. This chapter examines the geopolitics of maritime piracy and IUU fishing in the Horn of Africa waters. First, the chapter provides historical background on maritime piracy in Somalia, arguing that this is a new phenomenon in the region. Second, it discusses the extent of illegal fishing in Somali waters. Third, it assesses the political and economic explanations for clandestine maritime activities of statelessness, illegal fishing, toxic waste dumping, and poverty. Fourth, the chapter analyzes the implications of piracy and illegal fishing for the MENA region.

This introductory chapter lays out the groundwork for this volume's primary argument regarding the role that states and empires play in structuring the Yemeni diasporic community. Diasporic groups, which are generated outside the direct involvement of empires, have not been looked at in terms of the structuring power of empire and state. Hence the chapter jumpstarts this discussion by reviewing the prevailing literature concerning Yemenis or Hadrami—the people who are the focus of this book—and how they are considered in relation to state power. And given the book's particular focus on Yemeni interactions with states and empires in the Horn of Africa, this chapter also presents a brief historical overview of the involvement of empires and the formation of the state in the area.

This chapter argues that the charcoal trade exposes Somalia’s political economy as a driver of persistent conflict fueled by competing local, regional, and international interests. Of particular note is the tendency of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states to buy Somalia’s charcoal, whether licit or illicit, for domestic use: such commercial activity contributes to the country’s regressive imbalances. At the same time, GCC states jockeying for geopolitical influence across the Horn of Africa increases the uneven spread of resources and access to finance for Somalia’s leaders. This process has fed the political elite’s insatiable appetite for personal patronage and has produced a nexus of competing rivalries that further destabilizes Somalia and the broader Red Sea region. This chapter studies the use of one natural resource, charcoal, and its trans-boundary trade as a vehicle to illustrate how Somalia’s ties to the GCC states—and the broader Islamic or Arab world—are being strengthened. The chapter concludes that this growing proximity is both offering beneficial forms of assistance and support, as well as proving to be a factor for destabilization at a time when Somalia is becoming of increasing strategic concern for Western and emerging powers.

This chapter considers the challenges faced by plant conservation in the Middle East, outlining what is needed for successful conservation. It describes how humans are exacerbating the ongoing effects of desertification, including wood collection, road construction, and extractive petroleum-related technologies. Meanwhile, massive coastal developments are degrading the diverse and productive marine ecosystems. Agriculture continues to stress the regional ecology through overstocking of livestock, land conversion, and ephemeral agriculture. Negative consequences of wadi-damming and water recharge wells all create additional challenges and the hydro-politics are a major source of conflict. The region’s major biodiversity hotspots are described, including the Horn of Africa and Eastern Afromontane regions, Eastern Mediterranean basin, the Irano–Anatolian region with its ancient “Hyrcanian” forestland south of the Caspian, and the Caucasus mountain refugia of Arcto–Tertiary relicts (with the Colchic and Hyrcan forests there and in Hyrcanian Iran being among the oldest forests in western Eurasia).

This chapter puts the famine of 2011 in the context of Somalia’s recent history, the political economy of humanitarian aid in the Greater Horn of Africa, and Somalia’s protracted crisis of development since the 1970s. This includes the Ethio-Somali war in 1978, the civil war in Somalia, the collapse of the Siad Barre regime, the 1992 famine, the “warlord” era, the rise of the Islamic Courts Union, the Ethiopian invasion in 2006 and the rise of Al Shabaab. The chapter traces the history of the “normalization of crisis in Somalia,” and sets the scene for the crisis of 2011. Lastly, it traces the impact of Al Shabaab and the counter-terrorism legislation intended to curb its activities.

This book, although not about pirates, begins with the topic of pirates. In April 2009, most Americans were startled to learn that a U.S. flagged merchant ship, the Maersk Alabama, had been attacked by Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa and equally relieved when the destroyer USS Bainbridge, which happened to be patrolling in the area, arrived to rescue the captain and literally blow up his captors. A sporadic and generally marginal phenomenon across two centuries, the incidence of oceanic piracy has picked up in recent years due to the juncture of rising Asian exports—especially for transshipment through the Suez Canal and the Molucca Straits—and the number of “failed states” around the Indian Ocean.

This chapter considers the threat posed by Al-Shabaab both in Somalia and to the Horn of Africa. Al-Shabaab is a composite insurgency, which has exploited local grievances by aligning itself with disaffected clans or minority groups. In 2016, it stepped up efforts to co-opt clan leaders through coercion and incentives, even establishing a new Council of Clan Leaders. Since 2010, Al-Shabaab has sought to establish itself in the Horn of Africa, initiating insurgent activities in six countries of the region and conducting attacks in five of them. In 2013, Al-Shabaab established two transnational military wings: one focusing on Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda; the other on Ethiopia. Al-Shabaab's regional unit, Jaysh Ayman, has carried out a campaign of attacks in northern Kenya, while its affiliate Al-Hijra is said to have established a range of networks and operational cells, including in Kenya's prisons.