When Somalia’s state collapsed in the early 1990s and famine spread through a country shattered by civil war, the United States intervened under Operation Restore Hope to do something more basic than charity: restore control over relief corridors so food could move through a landscape where armed power governed access, taxation and survival.
What followed was a mission with a long tail of statecraft. Refugee protection and resettlement carried Somalia’s collapse into American institutions, giving Somali families a path to rebuild across US cities. Emergency response became a lasting civic presence. That history matters because it shows Washington’s pivot from access and protection to the post-9/11 security frame of surveillance, targeting and containment.
