Search for "somalia" | World Peace Foundation

Blog (97)

Essay

World Food Crises and Famines: What’s the Link?

World Peace Foundation June 18, 2025

Famine Food insecurity

Essay

black and white photo of Chinese workers in a grain field

Historical Trends in Famine Mortality

Matt Day, Alex de Waal May 13, 2025

Africa China Famine India Mass Starvation Middle East Russia

Essay

silhouette of a person with red "x" covering mouth, symbolizes censorship

Famine in the Dark: Data for how censorship contributes to starvation

Alex de Waal April 30, 2025

Africa Democracy Ethiopia Famine Food insecurity Gaza India IPC Mass Starvation Middle East Sudan Tigray

Essay

photo of young man digging\mining for copper with several large bags filled in forefront

Policy Acceptance and Scholarly Reluctance

Aditya Sarkar April 11, 2025

DRC Political Finance Political Marketplace Somalia South Sudan Sudan Syria

Essay

A globe with coins falling on top of it. The coins are scattered all over the globe, creating a sense of chaos and disorder.

Transactional Politics: Theorizing practice, from Africa and the Middle East to the global stage

Alex de Waal April 9, 2025

Africa Capitalism kleptocracy Middle East Political Finance Political Marketplace Populism Red Sea Trump US

Essay

Aerial top view container ship at sea port for logistics import export, shipping or transportation.

America versus the Houthis in the Red Sea

Alex de Waal April 1, 2025

Horn of Africa Houthi MENA region Middle East Red Sea Security UAE US Yemen

Essay

family sheltering in tent outside bombed out city

How Many People Have Died of Starvation in Gaza?

Alex de Waal December 17, 2024

Darfur Ethiopia Famine Food insecurity Gaza IPC Israel Mass Starvation Starvation Crimes

Essay

photo of a woman in a red head scarf holding a baby

Hunger and War Economies: Into a new dangerous era

Alex de Waal November 22, 2024

Capitalism Ethiopia Famine Israel Mass Starvation Multilateralism Somalia South Sudan Starvation Crimes Sudan Syria US war economies

Essay

Precarity, and peace in the Horn of Africa

Aditya Sarkar July 31, 2024

Ethiopia Political Marketplace Precarity Somalia South Sudan Sudan

Essay

A Sign from the Plateau Peace Building Agency advocating for peace that says Think Peace Talk Peace Act Peace

Untangling the Politics of Violence, Identity, and Peace in Nigeria

Jared D. Miller June 13, 2024

Corruption Nigeria Political Marketplace Violence

Essay

Dark globe covered in oil conveying environmental disaster

Traumatic Decarbonization: Fragile Fossil Fuel Producers and the Political Challenge of the Global Energy Transition

Aditya Sarkar, Alex de Waal May 22, 2024

Ecuador Indonesia Iraq Nigeria South Sudan Sudan Traumatic decarbonization Venezuela

Essay

The Political Role of Corruption: Money Makes the Political World Go Round

Jared D. Miller April 3, 2024

Corruption Political Finance Political Marketplace

Essay

skinny african person hand touching pot of beans in african during difficult famine time in village with sepia effect

Can we Compare Famines? Gaza, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tigray, Yemen

Alex de Waal March 22, 2024

Famine Gaza Mass Starvation Somalia Sudan Tigray Yemen

Essay

grains of rice falling from a spoon into wooden bowl

The IPC Famine Warning: What’s in a name?

Alex de Waal March 19, 2024

Famine Gaza South Sudan

News

Two roughened hands hold a dirty silver bowl.

Mass Starvation: Recent media commentary from Alex de Waal on Gaza, Sudan, and Tigray

World Peace Foundation March 13, 2024

Accountability Famine Gaza Mass Starvation Sudan Tigray

Essay

Illustrated map of Africa with flags and location on world map

At Last A Treaty to Protect Citizenship Rights and End Statelessness in Africa

Chidi Anselm Odinkalu February 21, 2024

Africa African Union Human Rights

Essay

Starving in Silence report cover black and yellow silhouette of parent and child

Ethiopia: Starving in Silence, 1984 and 2024

Alex de Waal January 25, 2024

Abiy ahmed Ethiopia Famine

Essay

Ethiopia’s Pivot To Populist Peacemaking

Eliab Taye January 24, 2024

Ethiopia

Essay

Destroyed buildings and piles of rubble from Gaza.

Gaza’s Famine Warning in Perspective

Alex de Waal January 3, 2024

Famine Food insecurity Gaza

Essay

Shoulder of a person in camouflage, with an Ethiopian flag patch.

Tigray in the Eye of the Storm

Mulugeta Gebrehiwot Berhe January 2, 2024

Abiy ahmed Eritrea Ethiopia Tigray

Essay

Photo aerial view of waterfront commercial business district Lagos Island

Mobile Space-Times and the Rescaling of Political Community

Loren Landau November 29, 2023

Africa Equality Precarity

Essay

motorbike driving on dusty road through town

Somalia: State-making at the frontier of global trade

Alex de Waal September 13, 2023

Somalia

Essay

On (Not) Being Arrested by the United Nations

Alex de Waal July 11, 2023

Somalia United Nations

Essay

Cover of report, "Situating the Contribution of the Political Market Framework to Peace Processes."

Making Peace in a Political Market: Four Questions for a Mediator

Alex de Waal, Aditya Sarkar, Benjamin J. Spatz July 5, 2023

Fragile states Peacemaking Political Marketplace Sudan Yemen

Essay

Traumatic Decarbonization in Carbon-based Political (UN)Settlements

Aditya Sarkar March 22, 2023

Precarity Traumatic decarbonization

Essay

Cross-border flows of political finance across the Red Sea region

Aditya Sarkar March 14, 2023

Africa Political Finance Red Sea

Essay

4 new Ethiopian banknotes arranged on yellow background

Re-introducing the Political Marketplace to Ethiopia

Alex de Waal February 8, 2023

Abiy ahmed Ethiopia Political Marketplace

Essay

Drones in the Formation, Development, and Militarization of Israel

B. Arneson December 20, 2022

Arms trade Drones Israel

Essay

Grainy security camera image of a group of five people on a tarmac near a plane.

Prisoner Swap: drug wars, prison conditions, & trafficking weapons

Bridget Conley December 13, 2022

Arms trade Prison Russia

Essay

Generals of South Sudan's army celebrate during official independence day ceremonies. After two decades of civil war and two million deaths, their dream is finally realized. - photo by Charles Braddix

Can political finance explain the different development stories in Ethiopia and Sudan?

Aditya Sarkar, Alex de Waal November 28, 2022

Ethiopia Food insecurity Political Finance Sudan

Essay

african man holding cell phone at grocery store

Digital feast and famine

World Peace Foundation June 9, 2022

Accountability Digital Technologies Humanitarian Law

Essay

How Not to End Mass Starvation

Alex de Waal May 24, 2022

Climate crisis Famine UN Resolution 2417 United Nations

Essay

What Next for Ethiopia?

Alex de Waal November 8, 2021

Ethiopia Tigray TPLF

Essay

Ethiopian Fireworks and the Defeat of al-Qaeda: A personal recollection

Alex de Waal September 13, 2021

al-Qaeda Sudan Terrorism

Essay

Can the World Go Green Without Destabilizing Oil-Pumping Nations?

Benjamin J. Spatz, Alex de Waal, Aditya Sarkar, Tegan Blaine June 23, 2021

Climate crisis Traumatic decarbonization

Essay

Somalia Crisis

World Peace Foundation April 20, 2021

Somalia

Essay

Ethiopia: No Longer the Land of Famine?

Alex de Waal March 18, 2021

Ethiopia Famine Tigray

Essay

Somalia’s Disassembled State

Alex de Waal February 9, 2021

Peacemaking Somalia Violence

Essay

Hunger deaths aren’t simply about famine or no famine

Alex de Waal February 5, 2021

Famine Somalia Yemen

Essay

Talking and fighting about self-determination in Ethiopia

Alex de Waal January 11, 2021

Ethiopia nationalism Tigray

Essay

Government ZA Follow African Union Summit

An African Agenda for Peace: OAU Declaration at 30

Said Djinnit, El-Ghassim Wane July 9, 2020

Africa African Union Democracy Governance

Essay

Change and Theory in Violent Political Markets

Aditya Sarkar, Alex de Waal, Sarah Detzner, Benjamin J. Spatz May 8, 2020

Development Political Marketplace

Essay

closeup of woman's hands holding finely ground wheat

Going remote: learning from aid practices in Somalia and Sudan for the Covid-19 crisis

Susanne Jaspars April 16, 2020

Covid-19 Digital Technologies Food insecurity

Interview

A domestic turn: Interview with Catherine Besteman

Bridget Conley March 10, 2020

Justice Migration

Essay

Recommendations for Creating a Theory of Change for Violent Political Marketplaces

World Peace Foundation February 21, 2020

Armed violence Democracy Political Marketplace Security Sector Reform

Essay

Africa’s ‘Civil Wars’ Are Regional Nightmares

Alex de Waal October 23, 2019

Abiy ahmed Eritrea Ethiopia

Essay

Reflections on Famine Crime, Global War and Activism

Mark Duffield October 9, 2019

Famine Mass Starvation

Essay

What Mass Starvation Tells Us about World Peace

Alex de Waal October 7, 2019

Climate crisis Famine Mass Starvation World peace

Essay

Almost everything we’re told about Al-Shabaab isn’t true

Alex de Waal May 8, 2019

Africa Somalia Terrorism

Essay

3D illustration of South Sudan 100 Pounds bills stacks background

South Sudan: The Perils of Payroll Peace

World Peace Foundation March 5, 2019

Political Marketplace South Sudan

Essay

2018 Movement towards accountability for starvation

World Peace Foundation February 13, 2019

Accountability Famine Mass Starvation

Essay

Mass Starvation Is a Crime—It’s Time We Treated It That Way

Alex de Waal January 24, 2019

Accountability Famine Saudi Arabia Yemen

Essay

The Prairie Fire that Burned Mogadishu

Alex de Waal December 12, 2018

Somalia State building

Essay

Commemorating Starvation in the 21st Century, part 3

Alex de Waal November 21, 2018

Mass Starvation Memorialization

Essay

The Emerging Crisis: Is Famine Returning as a Major Driver of Migration?

Batul K. Sadliwala November 15, 2018

Famine Food insecurity Migration

Essay

Review of: Paul D Williams Fighting for Peace in Somalia: A history and analysis of the...

Alex de Waal September 26, 2018

Peace operations Security Sector Reform Somalia

Video

Video from conference on ‘The return of famine’ is now available

World Peace Foundation July 13, 2018

Famine Mass Starvation Yemen

Essay

Beyond the Red Sea: A new driving force in the politics of the Horn

Alex de Waal July 11, 2018

Africa Pirates Red Sea

The imperative for Peace & Security Council’s action against conflict-induced food insecurity

Solomon Ayele Dersso May 30, 2018

Essay

Social Nutrition and Prohibiting Famine

Alex de Waal May 16, 2018

Famine Mass Starvation

Essay

We must never forget to remember

Alex de Waal May 8, 2018

Famine Mass Starvation

Essay

Fragility in the Paradigm: Reviewing David Cameron’s Commission on State Fragility, Growth and Development

Alex de Waal April 26, 2018

Development Fragile states Governance State building

Essay

How can famines be ended?

Alex de Waal April 19, 2018

Accountability Africa Cambodia China Famine

Essay

Walking in the shadow of the state A review of the joint World Bank United Nations...

Aditya Sarkar April 2, 2018

Armed violence Peacemaking Political Marketplace United Nations

Essay

Brexit increases the risk of famine

Alex de Waal March 2, 2018

Famine UK

Essay

British risk complicity in Yemen ‘famine crime’

Alex de Waal November 23, 2017

Accountability Famine UK Yemen

Essay

Famine and epidemic disease in Africa

Alex de Waal November 15, 2017

Africa Disease Famine

Essay

Global Migration: Does it matter if we call it a ‘crisis’?

Batul K. Sadliwala October 24, 2017

Afghanistan Internally Displaced Person Migration Myanmar

Essay

Can Somalia Ever Win Against al-Shabab?

Alex de Waal October 20, 2017

Africa al-Shabab Armed violence Somalia Terrorism

Essay

“Inside These War Zones, Everyone is Talking About Money”

Alex de Waal October 12, 2017

Somalia State building

Essay

Towards a common doctrine for African Standby Force-led peace operations

Ann Fitz-Gerald July 17, 2017

Africa African Union Peace operations United Nations

Essay

Operation Starvation, expanded version 2

Alex de Waal June 19, 2017

Famine Mass Starvation

Essay

Operation Starvation, expanded version 1f

Alex de Waal June 19, 2017

Famine Mass Starvation

Essay

AMISOM: Charting a new course for African Union peace missions

Dawit Yohannes Wondemagegnehu May 25, 2017

Africa African Union Somalia

Essay

Modern post-conflict security sector reform in Africa: patterns of success and failure

Sarah Detzner May 23, 2017

Africa African Union Security Sector Reform United Nations

Essay

More than Malnutrition: Famine as Social Crisis

Alex de Waal May 1, 2017

Famine South Sudan

Essay

An Age of Uncertainty

Will Reno March 30, 2017

Democracy Disorder Governance Trump US

Essay

Displacement and the City

Aditya Sarkar March 10, 2017

Internally Displaced Person Middle East Migration

Essay

On the Significance of the Declaration of Famine in South Sudan

Alex de Waal February 28, 2017

Famine Food insecurity South Sudan United Nations Yemen

Essay

photo of graffiti with military themes, world war 3

Garrison America and the Threat of Global War

Alex de Waal December 5, 2016

Capitalism Democracy Populism

Essay

Policy Memo: The ‘Regional Protection Force’ for South Sudan

Aditya Sarkar November 15, 2016

African Union South Sudan Sudan

Essay

Legend of Tarzan: Profiling a tough Somalian mayor

World Peace Foundation October 25, 2016

Political Finance Somalia

Essay

The End of Interventionism

Alex de Waal October 13, 2016

Iraq Libya

Essay

Bankrupting Kleptocracies is a Dangerously Bad Idea

Alex de Waal October 12, 2016

Africa kleptocracy

Essay

Black and white sketch of a destitute family selling a child in China

The danger of researching ‘in silos’: lessons from the Chinese famine of 1876-9

Aditya Sarkar September 27, 2016

Atrocities China Famine

Essay

War is security is peace: President Obama s new beginning with the Muslim world and the...

Aditya Sarkar September 15, 2016

Democracy Governance Security US

Essay

The African Peace & Security Architecture

Mulugeta Gebrehiwot Berhe September 1, 2016

Africa African Union Organisation of African Unity Peace operations

Essay

What Went Wrong [in South Sudan]

Aditya Sarkar August 5, 2016

Security Sector Reform South Sudan

Essay

Outlining a research agenda on private militarism and political markets in Africa

Aditya Sarkar August 2, 2016

Africa Armed violence Mercenaries Political Marketplace

New Report Outlines a “Political Agenda for Peace” in Africa

World Peace Foundation July 21, 2016

Africa African Union

Essay

Brexit Threatens World Peace & Security

Alex de Waal June 29, 2016

Governance Peacemaking UK

Essay

Brexit is Bad News for Africa. Period.

Alex de Waal June 27, 2016

Africa Governance UK

Essay

Europe’s Challenge in the Horn of Africa

Alex de Waal May 24, 2016

Africa European Union Migration Red Sea

Interview

Interview with Alex de Waal in Addis Fortune

World Peace Foundation March 28, 2016

Africa Darfur Sudan

Essay

Africa’s $700 Billion Problem Waiting to Happen

Alex de Waal March 18, 2016

Africa African Union Red Sea

Essay

The Business of Peace in Africa

Alex de Waal March 8, 2016

Africa African Union Darfur Middle East Political Finance Political Marketplace South Sudan

Essay

Two Definitions of Kleptocracy – and How ‘The Sentry’ Might be Useful

Alex de Waal February 1, 2016

kleptocracy Political Marketplace

Publication (16)

Article

Going ‘cold turkey’: Oil addiction and ‘traumatic’ decarbonization in fragile fossil fuel producers

Aditya Sarkar October 15, 2024

Report

Peacemaking, Precarity, and Accumulation by Dispossession in the Horn of Africa

Aditya Sarkar July 25, 2024

Article

Traumatic Decarbonization in Fragile States

Aditya Sarkar May 16, 2024

Article

Two-Level Game or the Primacy of Domestic Politics? Ethiopia’s Regional Foreign Policy after 2018

Aditya Sarkar September 19, 2023

Paper

Situating the Contribution of the Political Market Framework to Peace Processes

Alex de Waal June 1, 2023

Article

Decarbonization and Conflict Resolution: New Patterns of Peacemaking in Political Marketplace Systems and its Implications for...

Benjamin J. Spatz February 16, 2023

Paper

Traumatic Decarbonization in Carbon-Based Political (Un)settlements

Aditya Sarkar February 1, 2023

Book

Accountability for Starvation: Testing the Limits of the Law

Bridget Conley

Article

Somalia’s disassembled state: clan unit formation and the political marketplace

World Peace Foundation January 11, 2021

The Horn of Africa and the Yemen Crisis

Paper

The Prarie Fire that Burned Mogadishu: The Logic of Clan Formation in Somalia

Alex de Waal December 1, 2018

Paper

Mandates or ‘Blind’ dates? Addressing the challenges of mandate development processes supporting African peace operations

Ann Fitz-Gerald June 1, 2016

Paper

Bottom-Up or Top-Down The Need for a Relevant Grounded and Distinguishing Peace Operations Doctrine for the...

Ann Fitz-Gerald June 1, 2016

Paper

AMISOM: Charting a New Course for African Union Peace Missions

Dawit Yohannes Wondemagegnehu June 1, 2016

Paper

Assessing the Anti-Atrocity Toolbox

Bridget Conley February 1, 2016

Book

The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa: Money, War and the Business of Power

Alex de Waal

Project (4)

abstract illustration representing hunger

History & Future of Famine

View Project

abstract illustration representing peace

Traumatic Decarbonization

View Project

Political Marketplace

View Project

Regional Peace and Security

View Project

Authors (2)

Chepkorir Sambu

Researcher, Africa Peacemaking Program, WPF

Aditya Sarkar

PhD Student, The Fletcher School, Tufts University

World Food Crises and Famines: What’s the Link?

Historical Trends in Famine Mortality

Famine in the Dark: Data for how censorship contributes to starvation

Policy Acceptance and Scholarly Reluctance

Transactional Politics: Theorizing practice, from Africa and the Middle East to the global stage

America versus the Houthis in the Red Sea

How Many People Have Died of Starvation in Gaza?

Hunger and War Economies: Into a new dangerous era

Precarity, and peace in the Horn of Africa

Untangling the Politics of Violence, Identity, and Peace in Nigeria

Traumatic Decarbonization: Fragile Fossil Fuel Producers and the Political Challenge of the Global Energy Transition

The Political Role of Corruption: Money Makes the Political World Go Round

Can we Compare Famines? Gaza, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tigray, Yemen

The IPC Famine Warning: What’s in a name?

Mass Starvation: Recent media commentary from Alex de Waal on Gaza, Sudan, and Tigray

At Last A Treaty to Protect Citizenship Rights and End Statelessness in Africa

Ethiopia: Starving in Silence, 1984 and 2024

Ethiopia’s Pivot To Populist Peacemaking

Gaza’s Famine Warning in Perspective

Tigray in the Eye of the Storm

Mobile Space-Times and the Rescaling of Political Community

Somalia: State-making at the frontier of global trade

On (Not) Being Arrested by the United Nations

Making Peace in a Political Market: Four Questions for a Mediator

Traumatic Decarbonization in Carbon-based Political (UN)Settlements

Cross-border flows of political finance across the Red Sea region

Re-introducing the Political Marketplace to Ethiopia

Drones in the Formation, Development, and Militarization of Israel

Prisoner Swap: drug wars, prison conditions, & trafficking weapons

Can political finance explain the different development stories in Ethiopia and Sudan?

Digital feast and famine

How Not to End Mass Starvation

What Next for Ethiopia?

Ethiopian Fireworks and the Defeat of al-Qaeda: A personal recollection

Can the World Go Green Without Destabilizing Oil-Pumping Nations?

Somalia Crisis

﻿Ethiopia: No Longer the Land of Famine?

Somalia’s Disassembled State

Hunger deaths aren’t simply about famine or no famine

Talking and fighting about self-determination in Ethiopia

An African Agenda for Peace: OAU Declaration at 30

Change and Theory in Violent Political Markets

Going remote: learning from aid practices in Somalia and Sudan for the Covid-19 crisis

A domestic turn: Interview with Catherine Besteman

Recommendations for Creating a Theory of Change for Violent Political Marketplaces

Africa’s ‘Civil Wars’ Are Regional Nightmares

Reflections on Famine Crime, Global War and Activism

What Mass Starvation Tells Us about World Peace

Almost everything we’re told about Al-Shabaab isn’t true

South Sudan: The Perils of Payroll Peace

2018 Movement towards accountability for starvation

Mass Starvation Is a Crime—It’s Time We Treated It That Way

The Prairie Fire that Burned Mogadishu

Commemorating Starvation in the 21st Century, part 3

The Emerging Crisis: Is Famine Returning as a Major Driver of Migration?

Review of: Paul D Williams Fighting for Peace in Somalia: A history and analysis of the...

Video from conference on ‘The return of famine’ is now available

Beyond the Red Sea: A new driving force in the politics of the Horn

The imperative for Peace & Security Council’s action against conflict-induced food insecurity

Social Nutrition and Prohibiting Famine

We must never forget to remember

Fragility in the Paradigm: Reviewing David Cameron’s Commission on State Fragility, Growth and Development

How can famines be ended?

Walking in the shadow of the state A review of the joint World Bank United Nations...

Brexit increases the risk of famine

British risk complicity in Yemen ‘famine crime’

Famine and epidemic disease in Africa

Global Migration: Does it matter if we call it a ‘crisis’?

Can Somalia Ever Win Against al-Shabab?

“Inside These War Zones, Everyone is Talking About Money”

Towards a common doctrine for African Standby Force-led peace operations

Operation Starvation, expanded version 2

Operation Starvation, expanded version 1f

AMISOM: Charting a new course for African Union peace missions

Modern post-conflict security sector reform in Africa: patterns of success and failure

More than Malnutrition: Famine as Social Crisis

An Age of Uncertainty

Displacement and the City

On the Significance of the Declaration of Famine in South Sudan

Garrison America and the Threat of Global War

Ethiopia: No Longer the Land of Famine?