The Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy: The Case Of Horn Of Africa Since 2002

The main theme of this thesis is to examine the global counter-terrorism strategy efforts in particular reference to the Horn of Africa. The main question of the thesis is: How do hard power and complications of terrorism negatively affect the global counter- terrorism efforts in the international arena as well as in the Horn of Africa? In this thesis the"Horn"refers to the countries: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda.This thesis employs the international relations theory of"Smart Power", the combination of soft and hard power, which it suggests ought to be the strategy and the implementation of counter-terrorism in the global arena as well as in the Horn.Methodologically, this research mainly utilizes qualitative research approaches; although it utilizes some amount of quantitative explanation. It also employs the social scientific approach of collecting qualitative data including descriptive and analytical accounts of events. The sources of data this thesis utilizes include, university libraries, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, international and regional organizations, archives and websites.The main finding of the thesis is that the stakeholders in the Horn did not combined both the hard and soft power approach not attempt to resolve the complications of counter-terrorism; because of these reasons the strategy of the global counter-terrorism effort is ineffective in the Horn of Africa.The exclusive use of hard power coupled with the complications of terrorism could exacerbate insecurity and put the Horn's weak democracies at risk. The international community's continued funding of existing initiatives through the UN is central to pushing back the frontiers of terrorism and regional insecurity in the Horn of Africa. A holistic, well-coordinated and supervised counter-terrorism effort that ties together poverty eradication, conflict resolution and peace-building strategies can successfully drain the marshes in which extremism and terrorism have thrived in the Horn of Africa. Furthermore, a unilateral approach is not the best approach; it is counterproductive to the countering-terrorism efforts in the global setting as well as in the Horn. The counter-terrorism strategy and implementation which uses the combined hard and soft power (Smart Power) approach and resolving the complications of counter-terrorism thorough UN is an indispensible way to minimize or to stop acts of terrorism in the Horn.