Somalia: Focal Point of a Revamped U.S. Regional Security Strategy for Southwest Asia.

摘要

This paper asserts that the United States' humanitarian intervention in Somalia could provide a rare window of opportunity for improving America's strategic posture in Southwest Asis. United States Central Command's area of responsibility is largely deficient in the operational support facilities available to the other regional unified commands. Such facilities would help optimize the sustainability and responsiveness of USCENTCOM's warfighting forces. It calls for forward basing small-scale United States forces in Somalia to provide USCENTCOM the redundancy and flexibility to respond with a wide spectrum of war-fighting packages which would be suitable to adequately and decisively accomplish its regional security strategy--with less costly consequences. Peacemaking operations, using U.S. special operations forces, are also discussed along with the effect our presence will have on Somalia and other Arab states. Finally, the paper examines a recent news article about the exploration for potentially significant quantities of oil and gas in northern Somalia. (Author).