America's role in Somalia

The US should take at least three critical steps to bring stability to Somalia in the coming weeks and months.

First, America needs to ramp up diplomatic efforts to build support for a robust international peacekeeping force that can deploy to Somalia immediately. The US will need to help – not necessarily with troops, but with airlift and logistical support and training. This force will need a clear mandate and the capability to bring about stability throughout the country.

Second, the US must work vigorously with Somalis, regional players, and the international community to help the Somalis create an inclusive national government. The Transitional Federal Charter, signed by numerous clans and tribes within Somalia in 2004, may serve as a starting point or reference, but we may need to revisit that document. While America's record isn't perfect, we have experience working with complex and ethnic- or tribal-based political systems around the world – from Bosnia to Afghanistan to Liberia. Without this work, no peacekeeping force will be capable of bringing about stability in Somalia, and no government will be capable of cobbling together a political coalition with the legitimacy to lead the country forward. Dispatching a US special envoy would help elevate our ability to deal with these multifaceted political issues.

Third, the US should push for a large international trust fund that would help the nascent Somali government get down to the business of governing. Lessons the US learned in Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Kosovo may be instructive. Because Somalia's institutions are so weak and the needs of the people are so great, it is key that donor countries, the United Nations, and nongovernmental organizations contribute to stabilization efforts. These entities should coordinate their work to make sure that every dollar is used to help the people of Somalia – not inadvertantly diverted to prop up parochial and destabilizing interests.

Previous US attempts to resolve the competing and violent dynamics in Somalia have failed. Americans cannot forget that. But we cannot allow our past to overshadow the pressing security concerns we face in the region today. We have an opportunity to help the Somali people dig themselves out of almost two decades of chaos and to strengthen our national security. But if our government does not move quickly and aggressively on all fronts, Somalia will continue to be a haven for terrorist networks and a source of instability that pose a direct threat to the United States.

• Russ Feingold is a Democratic senator from Wisconsin and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee on Africa.

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