Page 126 - Rassegna 2021-4

OSSERVATORIO INTERNAZIONALE

In questa seconda parte, centrata sull’edificazione del sistema di sicurezza, si esami-
nano, quindi, il ruolo svolto a tutela dell’instabile confine con l’Etiopia, per preservare la
sovranità somala su territori rivendicati e quindi contesi dal potente vicino.
Si studiano, poi, le modalità attraverso le quali fu assicurato il controllo dell’ordine e
della sicurezza pubblica accentrando l’esercizio dell’uso della forza in una società altrimenti
multipolare, aperta alla faida come strumento di risoluzione delle controversie, e l’assetto
conferito alle nascenti forze di sicurezza somale.

This research investigates some of the cornerstones of the Trust Territory of Somaliland under
Italian Administration. Crossing multiple sources from past and current historiography with some unpu-
blished materials from the archives of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Historical Office of
the Army and the Historical Bureau of the Arma dei Carabinieri, it describes the scopes and the extent
of the Italian engagement, for its first time, in a new kind of missions, in which it has become a well reco-
gnized international player in the following years. In fact, among the Axis Powers, Italy was the only one
entitled to such a task, which was strongly pursued from the new republican regime to show its reliability,
regaining the confidence of the other Western partners. It is divided into two different articles: this one (the
1 was published on the previous n. 3/2021) is dedicated to the efforts made to grant the Somali soverei-
st
gnty on its contested border with the powerful Ethiopian Empire, preserving the status quo as it was at
the time the territory was handed over by the British Military Authority.
Finally, some conclusions are drafted, underlining how the monopoly of the legitimate use of force
was granted in a multipolar society, so enforcing stability and security in the medium term.

SOMMARIO: 6. Actio finium regundorum: establishing boundaries to impose sovereignty. -
7. The problem of internal security: affirming the monopoly of the use of
force.

6. Actio finium regundorum: establishing boundaries to impose soverei-
gnty
The task of border surveillance and border affirmation had always been
difficult between Somalia and Ethiopia, and remained so even in the 1950s, due
to the habit of raiding which made populations effortlessly shift from one side

of a border to the other. no one really felt it as such, neither the Ethiopians,
who would have gladly drawn the boundaries further south, nor the Somalis,
who recognized a common bond with the Ogaden. Two further factors affec-
ted this already very confused situation:
➣ the conduct maintained for years by Italy, which had encouraged the
pan-somal sentiments of the Ogaden populations in an anti-Abyssinian key,

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