Failed help?

Somalia, at the Horn of Africa, struggles since years to establish an effective government and society. Since 1991 the International Community is involved in the reconstruction of Somalia, which is the ¿beau ideal¿ of a ¿failed state¿. But what is a ¿failed state¿ and how did Somalia reach this status? What were the measurements of the International Community in the past 20 years and how did they help to ease the situation for the Somalis? Why is the International Community involved in Somalia at all? Is Al-Shabaab a threat for the rest of the world? Sixteen attempts to form a functioning government in 21 years, millions of refugees, piracy, famine and foreign troops within Somalia make it hard to believe that the provided international help was successful. The author tries to answer these and similar questions and to give a brief overview of the history of this conflict and the different attempts by the International Community to solve this crisis.