Jihad in the Arabian Sea Camille Pecastaing J IHAD INTHE A S RABIAN EA HERBERT AND JANE DWIGHT WORKING GROUP ON ISLAMISM AND THE INTERNATIONAL ORDER Manyofthewritingsassociatedwiththis WorkingGroupwillbepublishedbytheHooverInstitution. Materialspublishedtodate,orinproduction,arelistedbelow. ESSAYS SaudiArabiaandtheNewStrategicLandscape JoshuaTeitelbaum IslamismandtheFutureoftheChristiansoftheMiddleEast HabibC.Malik SyriathroughJihadistEyes:APerfectEnemy NibrasKazimi TheIdeologicalStruggleforPakistan ZiadHaider BOOKS FreedomorTerror:EuropeFacesJihad RussellA.Berman TheMythoftheGreatSatan:ANewLookatAmerica’sRelationswithIran AbbasMilani TornCountry:TurkeybetweenSecularismandIslamism ZeynoBaran IslamicExtremismandtheWarofIdeas:LessonsfromIndonesia JohnHughes Crosswinds:TheWayofSaudiArabia FouadAjami TheEndofModernHistoryintheMiddleEast BernardLewis TheWave:Man,God,andtheBallotBoxintheMiddleEast ReuelMarcGerecht TrialofaThousandYears:WorldOrderandIslamism CharlesHill JihadintheArabianSea CamillePecastaing HERBERTANDJANEDWIGHTWORKINGGROUPONISLAMISMANDTHEINTERNATIONALORDER E T ND HE OF J IHAD IN THE A S RABIAN EA (cid:2) Camille Pecastaing HOOVER INSTITUTION PRESS STANFORDUNIVERSITY | STANFORD, CALIFORNIA TheHooverInstitutiononWar,RevolutionandPeace,founded atStanfordUniversityin1919byHerbertHoover,whowenton tobecomethethirty-firstpresidentoftheUnitedStates,isan interdisciplinaryresearchcenterforadvancedstudyondomestic andinternationalaffairs.Theviewsexpressedinitspublicationsare entirelythoseoftheauthorsanddonotnecessarilyreflecttheviews ofthestaff,officers,orBoardofOverseersoftheHooverInstitution. www.hoover.org HooverInstitutionPressPublicationNo.612 HooverInstitutionatLelandStanfordJuniorUniversity, Stanford,California94305-6010 Copyright(cid:2)2011bytheBoardofTrusteesofthe LelandStanfordJuniorUniversity Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybe reproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical, photocopying,recording,orotherwise,withoutwritten permissionofthepublisherandcopyrightholders. MappreparedbyInternationalMapping,EllicottCity,Maryland. Firstprinting2011 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica Thepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimum RequirementsoftheAmericanNationalStandardfor InformationSciences—PermanenceofPaperforPrinted LibraryMaterials,ANSI/NISOZ39.48-1992.(cid:3)(cid:2) LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Pecastaing,Camille. JihadintheArabianSea/CamillePecastaing. p. cm.—(HooverInstitutionPresspublication;no.612) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-0-8179-1374-8(cloth:alk.paper)— ISBN978-0-8179-1376-2(e-bk.) 1. Mandab,Straitof,Region—History. 2.Mandab,Straitof, Region—Politicsandgovernment. 3.Islamandstate—Mandab, Straitof,Region. 4.RedSeaRegion—History. 5.RedSea Region—Politicsandgovernment. 6.Islamandstate— RedSeaRegion. I.Title. DT39.P43 2011 967.7(cid:3)032—dc23 2011018124 To Leo The Hoover Institution gratefully acknowledges the following individuals and foundations for their significant support of the HERBERTANDJANEDWIGHTWORKINGGROUP ONISLAMISMANDTHEINTERNATIONALORDER: HerbertandJaneDwight TheBeallFamilyFoundation StephenBechtelFoundation LyndeandHarryBradleyFoundation Mr.andMrs.ClaytonW.FryeJr. LakesideFoundation CONTENTS Foreword byFouadAjami ix Map xviii chapter one The Gates of Tears: Two World Orders 1 chapter two In the Land of the Mad Mullah: Somalia 11 chapter three In the Land of the Imam: Yemen 37 chapter four In the Land of the Mahdi: Sudan 63 chapter five War at Sea 83 chapter six The Rise of the Shabab 101 chapter seven Al Qaeda Redux 123 chapter eight The Sad Lands 147 Bibliography 161 About the Author 175 vii viii Contents About the Hoover Institution’s Herbert and Jane Dwight Working Group on Islamism and the International Order 177 Index 179 FOREWORD F or decades, the themes of the Hoover Institu- tion have revolved around the broad concerns of political, economic, and individual freedom. The cold war that engaged and challenged our nation during the twentieth century guideda good deal of Hoover’s work, including its archival accumulation and research studies. The steady output of work on the communist world offers durable testimonies to that time and struggle. But there is noreposefromhistory’sexertions,andnosoonerhadcom- munismleft thestageofhistorythanahugechallengearose in the broad lands of the Islamic world. A brief respite and a meandering road led from the fall of the Berlin Wall on 11/9 in 1989 to 9/11. Hoover’s newly launched project, the Herbert and Jane Dwight Working Group on Islamism and the International Order, is our contribution to a deeper understanding of the struggle in the Islamic world between order and its nemesis,between Muslims keen to protect the rule of reason and the gains of modernity and those deter- mined to deny the Islamic world its place in the modern international order of states. The United States is deeply engaged, and dangerously exposed, in the Islamic world, and we see our working group as part and parcel of the ongoing confrontation with the radical Islamists who have ix