Operation Restore Hope

The end of the Cold War introduced an altered global dynamic. The old bond of East/West patronage in Africa was broken, weakening the first crop of independent revolutionary leadership on the continent who no longer had the support of one or other of the superpowers. With collapse of the Soviet Union, all this changed. The question of global/strategic security devolved into regional peacekeeping and peace enforcement, characterized primarily by the Balkans War, but also many other minor regional squabbles across the developing world that erupted as old regimes fell and nations sought to build unity out of the ashes. In Africa the situation was exacerbated by an inherent tribalism and factionalism that had tended to be artificially suppressed by powerful, often military, dictatorships, generally unconcerned with the needs and requirements of an oppressed population.

No more striking example of this can be found than Somalia. One of the only effective armed resistance movements mounted against European colonisation in Africa took place in Somalia, which was suppressed only after enormous military expenditure. The crisis in Somalia that began to take shape with the ouster of military leader Mohammed Siad Barre during the early years of the 1990s forced both the United States and the United Nations to adapt their collective military policy toward the challenges of peacekeeping, and peace enforcement, in a human environment only dimly understood, extremely austere in terms of local infrastructure and with a warring clan leadership.

This book tells the story of the international intervention that took place in Somalia, the successes, failures and lessons learned. Many broad assumptions were made based on an unclear understanding of the dynamics of a regional conflict, coupled with the necessity for the first time in modern military history to balance political necessities with military. The crisis in Somalia set the tone for military intervention in a post-Cold War world, and although the same mistakes have been depressingly often repeated, the complexion of global military organization changed dramatically as a consequence of this episode.

This edition includes new dynamic colour cover artwork and completely revised colour section including specially commissioned colour profiles of the aircraft and vehicles involved.

“Africa@War is a ground-breaking series concept, studying Africa’s conflicts and military players in an informative and entertaining manner, examining some of the lesser-known campaigns and shedding new light on some of the better-known operations … great models of what the combination of authors and publishers can produce by way of useable case studies for the market place in a concise illustrated format.  They are recommended as professional military education references.” Charles D. Melson, Chief Historian, U.S. Marine Corps

"Each of the books in this series is a well-documented and researched synopsis of the events that they are focused upon. They layouts and presentation are logical and of a very high quality ... As an introduction to this field of operation, this series is outstanding. A definite asset for those wishing to improve their knowledge and understanding of the development of successful, multi-faceted doctrine in the fight against insurgent/assymetric war." Major Chris Buckham, Royal Canadian Air Force Journal    

"The evacuations of Saigon in 1975, Mogadishu in 1994, and Afghanistan in 2021 have all painfully highlighted the dangers of intervention followed by a flawed-nation building effort. This monograph provides the story of one such failure." Air & Space Power History

Available now is this revised edition of their book first published 2011. It is revised from the original and features a new cover along with a completely new set of colour artwork in the centre pages.....Coupled with the archive images, maps, new artwork and the main text, I found this to be interesting reading. There are many problems around the world and this is a good illustration that there is no one easy answer to all of them, the individual cultural differences within a country have to be taken into account." Robin Buckland, Military Model Scene

"The excellent text is completed by the usual iconographic section characteristic of the @War series, with dozens of photos of the time, the accurate profiles of Tom Cooper and Pablo Albornoz who represent the vehicles and aircraft protagonists of the actions, tables, maps and many diagrams very useful for understanding events." Marco de Montis, Panorama Difesa 

"...will be of interest to modelers and military historians alike." AMPS Indianapolis