As Washington’s geostrategy has evolved since September 11, 2001, the Horn of Africa has taken on vital strategic importance. In the thinking of US defense planners, the Horn occupies the western end of an “arc of instability” that runs through the Middle East, the Southern Caucasus and into Central Asia to Afghanistan’s eastern border. The vast area encompassed by the arc contains the world’s largest supply of energy reserves, is composed mostly of states with authoritarian and quasi-authoritarian governments that are subject to instability, and has a predominantly Muslim population, a disaffected portion of which provides recruits for and support of violent Islamic revolutionary movements. Full Story
a disaffected portion of which provides recruits for and support of violent Islamic revolutionary movements.
